Later this month, the Missile Defense Agency will conduct a non-intercept test of its Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system meant to prove out fixes to issues that caused a failed 2010 test, the agency’s director said Tuesday.
During the controlled test vehicle flight in January, MDA will gather data as a three-stage interceptor tracks a long-range, air-launched target that is equipped with countermeasures and decoys, Vice Adm. J. D. Syring said in a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The GMD system was created to destroy intermediate and long-range ballistic missile threats in space.
“The primary objective is to fully flesh out and fully test the alternate divert thrusters,” he said. “These are the thrusters that have been redesigned to address the fundamental problem back in 2010.”
During that December 2010 test, MDA discovered that the divert thrusters induced heavy vibrations that disrupted the system’s inertial measurement unit—the guidance system sensor that provides flight data to assist the kill vehicle’s navigation—causing a failure.
“We’ve addressed that near term with software and…with the isolation of the IMU,” he said. “But more importantly we’re now fixing the fundamental root cause of the problem with the divert thrusters. So this will be a great test in terms of engineering learning.”
Later this calendar year, MDA will conduct an intercept test with an ICBM with countermeasures, a scenario that would address the kinds of threats posed by North Korea or Iran, Syring said. A salvo engagement, in which two ground based interceptors target the same ICBM, is anticipated for 2018.
In 2019, MDA plans to test a two-stage ground based interceptor with a redesigned kill vehicle. A two-stage interceptor has not been approved by U.S. Northern Command, but “with this capability, the battlespace and the engagement time and decision space that the warfighter has would greatly increase,” he said.
Boeing [BA] is the prime contractor and systems integrator on the GMD program, while Raytheon [RTN], Northrop Grumman [NOC] and Orbital ATK [OA] provide the systems that make up the capability. The system’s ground-based interceptors have been deployed to Fort Greely, Alaska, and Vandenberg AFB, Calif.