MDA conducts non-intercept GMD flight test

The Missile Defense Agency announced on Thursday it had conducted a non-intercept flight test of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system. 

An Air Force C-17 aircraft carried and launched "a target representing an intermediate-range ballistic missile . . . over the broad ocean area west of Hawaii," MDA spokesman Rick Lehner said in a statement. A three-stage Ground-Based Interceptor was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA, for the purpose of testing the alternate divert thrusters of the system's Capability Enhancement-II Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle. 

During the test, an AN/TPY-2 radar located at the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai, HI, "detected the target and relayed target track information to the Command, Control, Battle Management, and Communication system," the statement continues, adding: "The Sea-Based X-band radar, positioned in the broad ocean area northeast of Hawaii, also acquired and tracked the target. The GMD system received track data and developed a fire control solution to engage the target. The test also included a demonstration of technology to discriminate countermeasures carried by the target missile."

The CE-II EKV "performed scripted maneuvers to demonstrate performance of alternate divert thrusters," according to the statement. "Upon entering terminal phase, the kill vehicle initiated a planned burn sequence to evaluate the alternate divert thrusters until fuel was exhausted, intentionally precluding an intercept."

The test was meant to evaluate six years of remedial work that aims to resolve engineering problems that have bedeviled the program since 2010 -- triggering schedule delays and developmental cost growth of more than $1.7 billion for the weapon's CE-II EKV. As Inside Defense reported this week:

"The primary objective is to fully flush out -- and fully test -- the Alternate Divert Thrusters," Vice Adm. James Syring, MDA director said in a Jan. 19 address at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The "alternate" thrusters on the Capability Enhancement II exoatmospheric kill vehicle being tested "have been redesigned that address the fundamental problem back in 2010," Syring said.

In 2010, the GBI program suffered back-to-back failures; in January, the first attempt to intercept a target with the CE II kill vehicle -- dubbed FTG-06 -- failed; a follow-on December attempt, FTG-06a, also failed.

A highly redacted copy of the 144-page FTG-06a Failure Review Board, dated Aug. 9, 2011 and made public in response to a Freedom of Information Act request does not reveal any findings regarding why the kill vehicle failed to hit its target.

Syring, however, in his address last week to CSIS said the root cause of the 2010 problems were tied to performance of the inertial measurement unit -- or IMU.