U.S. Conducted Two Missile Defense Tests Last Month

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency in April twice conducted successful flight tests, Inside the Pentagon reported yesterday (see GSN, April 19).

The April 13 and April 28 tests, part of the agency’s Critical Measurements and Countermeasures Program, helped gather “data for the design and improvement of missile defense interceptor and sensor systems,” the agency said in a statement. 

Payloads included “complex countermeasures, a mock re-entry vehicle (warhead), an on-board sensor package, and a number of missile defense-related experiments, all of which are designed to collect radar and optical data addressing critical system-level planned upgrades for missile defense elements,” according to the statement.

“Test data from these missions, including lessons learned about complex countermeasures, will be used in the design of missile defense interceptor and sensor elements across the Ballistic Missile Defense System” (John Liang, Inside the Pentagon, May 4).

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