Kinetic warhead test called a success
By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Kaua'i Bureau
MANA, Kaua'i — The Missile Defense Agency and the Navy yesterday fired a pair of rockets — one from the Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands and the other from the USS Lake Erie, 160 miles away — and although the warhead did not hit the target missile, the experiment was termed a success.
Associated Press
"The kinetic warhead did acquire the target and headed for it," but did not intercept it, said Missile Defense Agency spokesman Chris Taylor.
An interceptor missile launched yesterday from a U.S. Navy cruiser missed its target, fired from the Barking Sands missile facility on Kaua'i.
In all three previous tests, the most recent on Nov. 21, the warhead hit the target missile.
The testing is part of the nation's research effort to enable U.S. forces to knock down enemy missiles in flight. This series is aimed at developing a sea-based system for intercepting ballistic missiles while they are still flying above Earth's atmosphere.
Gov. Linda Lingle and members of her staff were at the Navy base and watched the launch.
"The activities at Barking Sands are important to homeland security," her spokes-man, Russell Pang, said earlier this week. "At the same time, the missile defense technology has some strong implications in the area of economic development in our technology sector."
The test involved an Aries target missile, launched at 1:15 p.m. yesterday from the Pacific Missile Range Facility.
Moments later, the Navy ships Lake Erie and USS Russell identified the launch. The Lake Erie, outfitted with an Aegis ballistic missile defense system, launched an interceptor two minutes after the Aries blastoff. It fired a Standard Missile-3 armed with a kinetic warhead — a warhead designed to destroy its target by smashing into it.
The warhead was outfitted with a newly upgraded Solid Divert and Attitude Control System, which takes over once a target is identified and directs the warhead to it.
"This is the first time the upgrade has been tested in flight," Taylor said.
Flight officials had not determined last night how close the warhead came to the target or why it failed to hit the Aries.
Taylor downplayed the significance of the miss, although he had previously said the likelihood of an actual intercept was good.
"Government and industry officials will conduct an extensive analysis of the flight test, and the results will be used to improve the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense development and testing program," the Missile Defense Agency said in a press release after the test.
"It's a great collection of engineering data," Taylor said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
