13 March 2002

U.S. To Conduct Missile Defense Test March 15

The United States will conduct its sixth ballistic missile defense test March 15 at a test range over the Pacific Ocean, according to the Pentagon.

In this test, a missile interceptor will be fired from the Ronald Reagan Missile Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands to hit and kill a modified Minuteman II intercontinental ballistic missile carrying a mock warhead launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, according to the Pentagon.

Following is the text of the Pentagon announcement:

United States Department of Defense
PRESS ADVISORY
March 13, 2002

The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) will conduct a developmental flight test to include the planned intercept of a long-range ballistic missile target in support of the missile defense test program on March 15, 2002. The planned flight test launch window is scheduled for 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. EST [3 a.m. to 7 a.m. GMT on March 16].

The test will involve the launch of an Orbital Suborbital Program (OSP) long-range missile from Vandenberg AFB, Calif. The OSP, a modified Minuteman II intercontinental ballistic missile, will carry a mock warhead and three balloon decoys. About 20 minutes after the target missile is launched, and about 4,800 miles away, a Payload Launch Vehicle missile carrying a prototype exoatmospheric kill vehicle (EKV) interceptor will launch from the Ronald Reagan Missile Test Site at Kwajalein Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. About 10 minutes later the intercept should take place at an altitude of approximately 140 miles above the central Pacific Ocean during the midcourse phase of the target warhead's flight.

This will be an integrated system test, with all representative system elements participating: space-based missile warning sensor; ground-based early warning radar, the prototype X-Band radar at Kwajalein Atoll and the battle management, command, control and communications system located at Kwajalein Atoll and the Joint National Integration Facility in Colorado Springs, Colo. Since the system is in its research and development phase, these elements serve as either prototypes or surrogates for system elements which are in the developmental stage and have not yet been produced for actual operational use.

This will be the sixth intercept test of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system (formerly National Missile Defense) research and development program. The first test on October 3, 1999, resulted in the successful intercept of a ballistic missile target. The second test took place on January 19, 2000, and did not achieve an intercept due to a clogged cooling pipe on the EKV, but did successfully test the integrated system of elements. The third test, on July 8, 2000, did not result in an intercept due an unsuccessful separation of the EKV from the booster rocket. The fourth test, on July 14, 2001, achieved a successful intercept of a ballistic missile target. The fifth test, on December 3, 2001, also resulted in a successful intercept.