By Ann Roosevelt
Missile Defense Agency (MDA) Director Air Force Lt. Gen. Trey Obering yesterday announced that a seeker characterization test Dec. 3 for the Net-Centric Airborne Defense Element (NCADE) was successfully conducted at White Sands Missile Range (WSMR), N.M.
Preliminary indications are that planned flight test objectives were achieved. The test involved the successful close-range imaging of a boosting Orion sounding rocket by a Raytheon [RTN] NCADE seeker-equipped AIM-9X missile launched from an Air National Guard F-16 test aircraft from the Air National Guard-Air Force Reserve Command Test Center, Tucson, Ariz.
NCADE is an air-launched weapon system designed to engage short- and medium-range ballistic missiles in the boost and ascent phase of flight.
“This test provides clear evidence that the NCADE seeker is a viable solution against a boosting ballistic missile threat,” Mike Booen, Raytheon Missile Systems vice president of Advanced Missile Defense, said in a separate statement. “NCADE fills a critical niche in the Ballistic Missile Defense System and provides a reviolutionary, low-cost approach to interceptor development and acquisition.”
Although not unexpected, the subsequent intercept destroyed the target.
A second AIM-9X launched during the test observed through its seeker the intercept of the target by the first and was also on a trajectory to intercept the target.
The target missile was launched from WSMR.
The NCADE concept uses modified components of existing AIM-9X and AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) air-to-air missiles, combined with a new liquid propellant second stage motor supplied by Aerojet [GY] to produce a missile able to intercept targets in the boost phase. The common components allow NCADE to launch from a wide variety of aircraft, and its small size allows it to be carried and launched from smaller unmanned aerial vehicles, a Raytheon spokesman said. Leveraging proven imaging infrared seeker components from existing production programs allows for potentially rapid development and fielding.
In the spring 2006, Raytheon received a $6.7 million contract from MDA for 12 months of risk-reduction work on the NCADE (Defense Daily, May 26, 2006).
The proposed missile could be carried by manned fighters or unmanned aerial vehicles and could be used against all ranges of missiles in the boost phase in those cases where aircraft could penetrate to within about 100 miles of the launch site.
Additionally, for boost phase intercept, MDA is developing the Airborne Laser, with a team led by Boeing [BA], and the Kinetic Energy Interceptor, developing under a team led by Northrop Grumman [NOC].
MDA is working on NCADE as part of its Ballistic Missile Defense System that will be able to provide a layered defense for the United States, its deployed forces, friends and allies against ballistic missiles of all ranges in all phases of flight.