The Defense Department Monday said “an anomaly,” led to the flight test termination of the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon Flight Test 2 Hypersonic Technology Test (AHW FT2 HTT) at the Kodiak Launch Complex in Alaska.
Shortly after 4 a.m. EDT, “the test was terminated near the launch pad shortly after lift-off to ensure public safety,” the Defense Department said in a statement Aug. 25. “There were no injuries to any personnel.”
Program officials are conducting an extensive investigation to determine the cause of the flight anomaly, the DoD statement said.
The test was conducted by Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command (SMDC/ARSTRAT), as part of the Defense Department’s Conventional Prompt Global Strike (CPGS) technology development program.
Both House and Senate national defense authorization bills for 2015 include $70 million for the Army portion of the CPGS program.
Photo: Alaska Aerospace Corp.
“The Army AHW is one of several capabilities being explored under the CPGS program,” said Pentagon spokeswoman Maureen Schumann. “The CPGS program is event based vice time or schedule driven. So, any future CPGS tests and schedule will be informed by the results of the anomaly investigation.”
The test plan called for the flight test vehicle to be launched from the Kodiak Launch Complex using an existing three-stage Strategic Target System (STARS), according to an Environmental Impact Study SMDC/ARSTRAT conducted for the test. Once the booster separated, the test vehicle was to have glided to an impact site near Illeginni Islet at Kwajalein Atoll in the Central Pacific Marshall Islands–a journey of some 3,500 miles.
The assessment said studies and reviews support a CPGS ability providing the national command authority the ability to engage targets at strategic range, in an hour or less, without using nuclear weapons. Design progress enabled conceptual technology demonstrations using Hypersonic Glide Body vehicles. “Advances in several key technologies are needed to achieve prompt global reach effects on targets with precision.”
The flight test was expected to carry “an instrument package designed to gather data to validate AHW design assumptions and environmental models.”
Alaska Aerospace Corp. –created by the State of Alaska–developed, owns and operates the Kodiak complex. In a mid-April release, the company said the test objectives were “to collect a wide variety of data on hypersonic boost-glide technologies and to demonstrate the boost and atmospheric flight of the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon FT 2 HTT concept. The test focus will be on “boost and atmospheric flight performance of aerodynamics, navigation, guidance and control, and thermal protection system technologies.”
The first flight test of the AHW concept in November 2011 was successful.
“The (test) data is used by the Department of Defense to anchor ground testing, modeling and simulation of hypersonic flight vehicle performance and is applicable to a range of possible Conventional Prompt Global Strike Concepts,” Schumann said.