By Dave Ahearn
The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, missile defense system Tuesday night scored another successful hit against a target missile, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) said.
That successful hit was scored at 8:30 p.m. ET Tuesday night, in a daylight test conducted at the Pacific Missile Range Facility off the island of Kauai in Hawaii, MDA reported.
At the controls were Army soldiers from the 6th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, Fort Bliss, Texas.
THAAD scored a successful intercept of a medium-range ballistic missile target.
Preliminary indications are that planned flight test objectives were achieved. THAAD is a mobile system now in development designed to intercept short to medium range ballistic missiles.
Soldiers of the 6th Air Defense Artillery Brigade conducted launcher, fire control and radar operations, using tactics, techniques and procedures developed by the Army Air Defense School.
The success by the THAAD system comes as it already was likely to receive a warm reception in Congress when it considers funding for missile defense programs.
Lockheed Martin [LMT] leads a team of contractors in providing THAAD.
Lawmakers also are likely to look kindly upon other missile defense programs well along in development or operational, including the sea-based Aegis weapon control system, also by Lockheed Martin, that includes Standard Missiles by Raytheon [RTN].