U.S. Plans:  Pentagon Officials Blame Test Failure on Misfiring Control Jets

U.S. Defense Department officials have said the failure of a solid-fuel guidance system was responsible for a missile interceptor failing to hit its target during a sea-based missile defense test conducted earlier this week, the Washington Times reported today (see GSN, Jan. 19).

The solid divert and attitude control (DAC) system used to control the interceptor’s kinetic warhead stopped functioning, resulting in the missed intercept, officials familiar with the test said.  The system uses solid-fuel jets to guide the interceptor’s warhead.

The U.S. Navy, which helped develop the interceptor, was previously urged to use a liquid-fuel system, but rejected the idea because liquid fuel is more difficult to store onboard a ship than solid fuel, missile defense officials said.

“The Navy insisted on a DAC with solid fuel, but the technology makes it more difficult for it to burn and stop, and burn again,” a missile defense official said.

In this week’s test, one of the solid fuel “cells” failed to ignite, according to the Times.

“The Navy is demonstrating an inability to get the DAC to work right,” the official said.  “They keep saying they think it’s ready, but it’s not.  They have got to figure out how to fix it,” the official added.

A spokesman for the Missile Defense Agency said, however, that it is still too early to determine why the test failed.

“We’ll certainly analyze the performance of the solid divert and attitude control system (SDACS), along with the performance of every other component from which we received data during the test,” MDA spokesman Rick Lehner said in a statement (Bill Gertz, Washington Times, June 20).

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United States:  Sea-Based Missile Defense Test Fails

A missile interceptor fired yesterday from a U.S. Aegis destroyer failed to hit its target during a sea-based missile defense test, according to the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (see GSN, June 17).

During yesterday’s test, an Aries target missile was launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Hawaii, and the USS Lake Erie fired a Standard Missile 3 interceptor two minutes later, according to the Associated Press.  While the interceptor’s guidance system was activated, the interceptor failed to hit the target, said Missile Defense Agency spokesman Chris Taylor.

Yesterday’s test was the first failure of a sea-based test, AP reported (B.J. Reyes, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, June 19).

Taylor denied, however, that test was a failure, saying that a successful intercept was not the main objective.

“I wouldn’t call it a failed test, because the intercept was not the primary objective,” Taylor said.  “It’s still considered a success in that we gained great engineering data.  We just don’t know why it didn’t hit,” he said (CNN.com, June 19).

U.S. and defense industry officials plan to conduct an in-depth analysis of the test over the next month and will use the results to improve the missile defense system, Taylor said.

“The next scheduled test will be in the fall and we’ll see what lessons we’ve learned,” Taylor said.  “You test a little, you learn a lot and you continue to go forward.  This is rocket science,” he said (Associated Press/FOXNews.com, June 18).

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U.S. Plans:  West Coast Mayor Opposes Sea-Based X-Band Radar

The mayor of Everett, Wash., met with high-ranking U.S. military officials in Washington last week in an attempt to prevent the U.S. Defense Department from stationing the Sea-Based Test X-Band Radar (SBX) — a component in the planned U.S. missile defense system — in the city (see GSN, March 11).

Everett Mayor Frank Anderson refused to say with whom he met, but did describe one official as someone with direct access to Missile Defense Agency Director Lt. Gen. Ronald Kadish.  The city is concerned that the radar could affect local hospital equipment and interfere with radio communications.

“We are going to work hard and push forward with everything in our power to discourage this from coming here,” Anderson said.  “Public health is a big issue; it has to be our No. 1 concern.  And great things are happening in Everett in terms of economic development,” he said.

The radar system is set to be equipped with measures to prevent it from interfering with medical or radio equipment, said MDA spokesman Rick Lehner.  “There’s software included in the radar to prevent it from emitting emission that could damage things like that,” he said.

The agency is expected to release a final environmental impact statement on the SBX radar project next month, according to the Seattle Times.  The agency is then expected to choose one out of six sites, including Everett, for the system by September, Lehner said (Rachel Tuinstra, Seattle Times, June 18).

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U.S. Plans:  MDA Set to Conduct Sea-Based Missile Defense Intercept Test

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency and the U.S. Navy are preparing to conduct a sea-based missile defense intercept test tomorrow involving the use of an Aegis destroyer, the Defense Department announced yesterday.

The test will involve the launch of a Standard Missile 3 interceptor from the USS Lake Erie against an Aries target fired from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai, Hawaii, according to the Pentagon release.  The purpose of the test is to evaluate the interceptor’s kinetic warhead’s guidance, navigation and control operation in space using an upgraded solid divert and attitude control system.

The scheduled test is the second in a planned series of six intercept tests in the current phase of development, the Pentagon release said (U.S. Defense Department release, June 16).

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U.S. Plans:  Decision on Miniature Kill Vehicles Due This Year

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency will make a decision in a few months on developing Miniature Kill Vehicles that could be fired in groups from a single missile, Defense News reported today (see GSN, Feb. 3).

The agency is scheduled to decide how much money to spend on the systems by the end of summer.  Multiple MKVs, which could weigh between 2 and 10 kilograms, would theoretically allow an interceptor to defeat decoys.

A missile armed with two- or three-dozen MKVs would decrease the need to have “excruciating knowledge of the bad guys’ weapons,” said Gary Payton, the MDA deputy for advanced systems.

“With one interceptor, I can assign multiple kill vehicles to everything I see,” Payton said.  “It improves the probability of kill,” he added.

It is not certain, however, if a small kill vehicle can destroy an incoming missile.

“At the extreme, you have to worry about lethality,” Payton said (Gopal Ratnam, Defense News, June 16).

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