PAC-3 Performs

A Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missile intercepted and destroyed an aerodynamic tactical ballistic missile target at White Sands Missile Range, NM, today, according to a Lockheed Martin statement.

Lockheed Martin's test involved a ripple fire engagement using two PAC-3 Cost-Reduction Initiative missiles against a "Juno target" -- a long-range missile -- that was fired from Ft. Wingate, NM, Richard McDaniel, vice president of PAC-3 missile programs within Lockheed Martin's Missiles and Fire Control business, said in a statement sent through a spokesman today. Ft. Wingate is about 300 miles from White Sands.

"The first interceptor destroyed the target and the second PAC-3 missile self-destructed as planned," the statement reads.

PAC-3 is designed to defeat tactical ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft, according to the statement. PAC-3 increases the Patriot system's firepower as 16 PAC-3 missiles can be loaded in place of four legacy Patriot PAC-2 missiles on a single launcher, the statement notes.

This test follows an Aug. 29 Army Test and Evaluation Command operational test of both Raytheon's Patriot and Lockheed's PAC-3 interceptors against ballistic missile targets. The August limited user test was performed at White Sands; the goal was to "validate the Patriot System Post-Development Build to meet design requirements," Army spokesman Dan O'Boyle said in an Aug. 30 statement.

Lockheed Martin expects three more flight tests involving PAC-3 by the end of the year, McDaniel said in his statement. The first is the large, integrated Missile Defense Agency test that will also include the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense weapon system and Aegis. The second involves the Medium Extended Air Defense system; that test will employ use the PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhanced  system. The third is another PAC-3 MSE flight test, he added.