Next-gen GMD missile scores first successful intercept

[Saifullah Sani]

Key Points

• A CE-II missile defence interceptor hit an incoming target for its first successful test
• The event is expected to clear the Pentagon to buy more interceptors after it halted production following the first two failed trials

The Pentagon's next-generation missile defence interceptor on 22 June scored its first successful hit following two failed intercepts, likely clearing the way for production to resume on more Ground-Based Interceptors (GBIs) meant to defend the United States against a limited ballistic missile threat.

Officials completed Flight Test Ground (FTG)-06b after the first test of the Capability Enhancement-II (CE-II) interceptor (FTG-06) failed in January 2010 and then a second (FTG-06a) failed in December 2010.

"Initial indications are that all components performed as designed," the Pentagon said in a 22 June statement. "Programme officials will spend the next several months conducting an extensive assessment and evaluation of system performance based upon telemetry and other data obtained during the test," it added.

Boeing is the prime contractor for the overall Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) missile defence system, and Raytheon builds the Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV) that is designed to strike and destroy the incoming ballistic missile.

US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) officials have said that a successful test would allow them to accept delivery of the next batch of CE-II configured GBIs, which was put on hold due to the first two test failures. It would also allow the MDA to begin updating legacy interceptors and then complete a CE-II upgrade programme.

The White House has asked for 14 more GBIs to be deployed and these are expected to cost "roughly USD75 million per interceptor, starting in [fiscal year] FY [20]16 at a procurement rate of two per year", MDA director Vice Admiral James Syring told Congress on 11 June.

Wes Kremer, Raytheon's vice-president of air and missile defence systems, told reporters that the company has not yet been informed whether this test clears production to restart, but that he does not foresee further hurdles at this point.

The intent is now to take the fixed design and deploy it with CE-IIs, but this requires a government contract with Boeing first, then a subcontract to Raytheon, in order to restart production, Kremer said.

He declined to provide specifics about what changes need to be made to fix the faulty interceptor design on the 10 existing CE-IIs.

"A new physics phenomenon" unique to the EKV was discovered during the failed FTG-06 and FTG-06a events, Kremer said, and this led Raytheon to alter its design and develop new test facilities and new test protocols to account for that phenomenon. He would not elaborate on the nature of this phenomenon, but said that a guidance issue and a thruster issue in space were involved.

During the 22 June test, a CE-II configured weapon from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California intercepted a Lockheed Martin LV-2 intermediate-range ballistic missile target that was launched from the US Army's Reagan Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

USS Hopper (DDG 70), an Aegis-equipped US Navy destroyer, detected and tracked the target with its AN/SPY-1 radar and transmitted the data to GMD's Northrop Grumman fire control system via the Command, Control, Battle Management, and Communication system, according to the Pentagon statement. Moreover, the Sea-Based X-Band radar tracked the target and transmitted data to GMD "to assist in the target engagement and collect test data", it added.

The GBI was launched about six minutes after the target, and its CE-II EKV "manoeuvred to the target, performed discrimination, and intercepted the threat warhead with 'hit to kill' technology, using only the force of the direct collision between the interceptor and the target to destroy the target warhead", the Pentagon said.

Kremer declined to say if the target used defensive countermeasures during the test.

Although the target was not an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) - which the GMD system is designed to defend against - the 45-ft-long LV-2 was configured "to closely mirror the capabilities of ground-launched enemy missiles that can travel 3,000-5,500 km [1,800-3,400 miles]", according to Lockheed Martin.

COMMENT
Government and industry GMD officials see their programme as gaining traction with a successful non-intercept flight test in January 2013 followed by this successful intercept, but the system still faces risks associated with its concurrent acquisition approach of fielding systems before they are tested.

The CE-II interceptors are likely to soon be procured despite having only one successful intercept in three attempts, and the 10 previously bought CE-IIs have to be upgraded to the new design.

In an April report the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) noted that "GMD's 2010 flight test failures have disrupted its broader developmental flight test plan and has resulted in cost growth of over [USD]1 billion due to, in part, re-conducting flight tests and conducting reviews of test failures." Each intercept test costs about USD200 million.

The GAO estimated in its report that the GMD system's total cost would be around USD41 billion, of which USD4.5 billion is to be spent from FY 2013-17.

By the end of FY 2017 the Pentagon plans to have deployed its 14 additional interceptors, but the GAO noted that "flight testing intended to demonstrate the system's capabilities and limitations is not scheduled to be completed until at least 2022."

The concurrent approach of manufacturing and fielding systems while still testing them has proven risky and costly with GMD (as well as other programmes, such as the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter).

"The cost to demonstrate, as well as fix, the already produced CE-IIs has increased from USD236 million to USD1.309 billion" due to faults discovered during failed tests, according to the GAO.

"There have been a lot of challenges with this programme," Kremer noted. "There were shortcuts that were taken for what were very good reasons at the time." In the early 2000s the system was rushed into the field to meet a perceived future ICBM threat from North Korea.

There now are a total of 30 CE-I and CE-II GBIs deployed at Vandenberg and Fort Greely in Alaska and, if the Pentagon proceeds with plans following the successful 22 June test, it would buy 14 more so the government would have 44 in silos plus three spares.

Next-gen GMD missile scores first successful intercept - IHS Jane's 360