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U.S. Plans I: MDA Tests Sensor System The U.S. Missile Defense Agency has conducted tests of a new sensor system that could become a component of a boost-phase missile defense system, agency officials said last week (see GSN, July 19). The agency tested the Generation I Boost Kill Vehicle seeker (KV seeker) July 17 during an Air Force test-launch of a Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile, Defense Daily reported (see GSN, June 7). The seeker tracked the missile’s flight, gathering data on its rocket plume and other aspects of the flight, Missile Defense Agency officials said. Researchers plan to examine the data to evaluate how well KV sensors tracked the target and how those data were transmitted, Lehner said. The test also evaluated the seeker’s ability to differentiate between the missile’s body and its rocket plume, according to the agency. “The technology we are looking [at] has applications for boost phase kinetic energy intercepts,” said MDA spokesman Lt.-Col. Richard Lehner. In June, the agency conducted a similar test during a Titan II ICBM test-launch, according to Defense Daily. Through coordination with Air Force launch tests, the agency has been able to obtain data that be can used in the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system without incurring the high costs of additional separate tests, Defense Daily reported. “Any time we can use our sensors on an Air Force operational tests, we don’t have to conduct a separate test, Lehner said (Kerry Gildea, Defense Daily, July 22). For further information, see:
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