US GMD system completes test
A Boeing-led team successfully tested improvements to the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system, validating system components with its partners and the US Missile Defense Agency, Boeing announced on 28 January.
During the test, a GMD interceptor launched from the Vandenberg Air Force Base , California. It performed an intentional fly-by of a target representing an advanced long-range ballistic missile. This was done to demonstrate the interceptor's maximum manoeuvring and to enhance data collection.
A Raytheon Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV) completed a data-gathering mission during the flight test. EKVs are designed to destroy ballistic threats while they are still in space. The mission objective was to observe the in-flight performance of the redesigned system components and gain information on evolving threat classes. The tests were supported by Raytheon's AN/TPY-2 radar and sea-based X-band radar (SBX).
Taylor Lawrence, president, Raytheon Missile Systems, said: ‘This was a remarkable data-collection opportunity. These are among our industry's most complex systems. Testing is critically important to ensuring the advancement of reliable kill vehicles for the protection of the US homeland.’
Norm Tew, vice president and program director, GMD, Boeing, said: ‘The Missile Defense Agency’s test design enabled the collection of critical data to validate key design improvements for the US homeland defence architecture. This data will also support future development such as the work that’s currently underway on the Boeing-led redesigned kill vehicle.’
More from Land Warfare
-
![Romania opens the chequebook and reorganises as it watches Russian aggression]()
Romania opens the chequebook and reorganises as it watches Russian aggression
Romania is retiring old systems, some Soviet, and replacing them with western equipment from countries such as Sweden and Turkey and boosting existing modern fleets.
-
![Milrem picks Texelis for partnership in drive to develop large UGV]()
Milrem picks Texelis for partnership in drive to develop large UGV
Milrem has delivered or is building a total of 200 Tracked Hybrid Modular Infantry System UGVs and has chosen Texelis as partner in its effort to develop a UGV.
-
![Sweden takes delivery of first M3 amphibious bridge and ferry system]()
Sweden takes delivery of first M3 amphibious bridge and ferry system
The most recent nation to join NATO has joined other member nations in using the M3 system.
-
![CV90 delivery to Slovakia imminent]()
CV90 delivery to Slovakia imminent
Slovakia is undergoing a radical refresh of its equipment, like many central and eastern European countries, and the arrival of new vehicles will form a substantial part of this.
-
![Mortar mobility: Patria’s TREMOS takes aim at the modern battlespace]()
Mortar mobility: Patria’s TREMOS takes aim at the modern battlespace
In conversation... Patria’s Lauri Pauniaho talks to Shephard's Gerrard Cowan about how high mobility levels are essential for mortar systems in the face of modern counter-battery fire, and how a new platform-agnostic module can combine existing vehicles and mortar barrels into a cost-effective new weapon system.
