A Successful Hit

The Missile Defense Agency had its first successful intercept using a second-generation Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle when a long-range Ground-Based Interceptor took out an intermediate-range ballistic missile target over the Pacific on Sunday, according to a June 22 Pentagon statement.

“Initial indications are that all components performed as designed,” the statement reads.

A successful intercept of the GBI armed with the Capability Enhancement-II EKV is considered critical to the Pentagon's decision-making on the system, which failed in two intercept attempts (FTG-06 and FTG-06a) in 2010. The first failed due to a quality-control issue and the second because of a design issue. In July 2013, the Pentagon tested a CE-I version of the GBI and the kill vehicle failed to separate from the rocket booster. The effort to demonstrate a working CE-II warhead is seven years behind schedule and more than $1 billion over cost.

During the June 22 test, “a threat-representative, intermediate-range ballistic missile target was launched from the Reagan Test Site” in Kwajalein Atoll, according to the statement. A Navy destroyer with an Aegis weapon system detected and tracked the target with its AN/SPY-1 radar and sent data to the GMD fire control system using the Command, Control, Battle Management and Communication system.

“About six minutes after target launch,” the statement notes, the GBI was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base. An operational crew from the 100th Missile Defense Brigade remotely launched the interceptor from Schriever Air Force Base, CO.

“A three-stage booster rocket system propelled the interceptors [CE-II] EKV into the target missile's projected trajectory in space,” the statement reads. “The kill vehicle maneuvered to the target, performed discrimination, and intercepted the threat warhead with 'hit-to-kill' technology, using only the force of the direct collision between the interceptor and the target to destroy the target warhead.”

Program officials will spending “the next several months” conducting “an extensive” evaluation of the performance “based upon telemetry and other data obtained during the test,” the statement notes.

Stay tuned for more coverage.