10 July 2001
Missile Defense Test Set for July 14
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
From: Press Service <afisnews_sender@DTIC.MIL>

The test is the same as the one last year that was scrubbed a few minutes into the test because the kill vehicle and booster did not separate. The test window is 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. Eastern time.

The test will use space-based sensors and ground-based radars, including the new X-band radar at Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific -- to gather information on the target, officials said. The target will be launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The interceptor is expected to launch from Kwajalein and get the kill vehicle to an optimum interception point in space.

While in flight, the kill vehicle receives targeting updates from the X-band radar and adjusts course. BMDO officials said the kill vehicle is on its own in the last few seconds of flight. Onboard sensors locate the target and maneuver the kill vehicle to collide with it.

If all goes according to plan, the intercept will occur at an altitude of 140 miles at speeds around 15,000 mph. The impact alone will vaporize the target.

During a July 9 media availability at the Pentagon with French Defense Minister Alain Richard, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld downplayed BMDO's test as "one more in what is a reasonably robust test series."

"Of course, each one will be watched with interest," he said. "A number of the things that will be tested have been tested before and work. A number of the things they are undertaking to test have not been tested.

"My guess is the outcome will be unfortunately simplified when it's over as either 'succeeding' or 'not succeeding.' But, of course, in any advanced technology, it is seldom that simple. It is often -- most often -- a situation where a variety of things work properly and a variety of things may not and more information may be needed. I suspect that that will very likely be the outcome in this instance."

BMDO officials agree, saying 20 more tests are scheduled through fiscal 2005.

The test will use a surrogate booster for the kill vehicle. The booster for the kill vehicle is 18 months behind schedule. The second and third stages of the interceptor will be from Minuteman III missiles. Officials said the first booster test may be in late summer and may be ready for an intercept test in fiscal 2002.

6 July 2001
First Bush Missile Test Set for July 14
By Jim Wolf

The ``integrated system'' test is often equated by the military to hitting a bullet with a bullet. The last two of the three tests to date have failed, most recently on July 7, 2000. Those misses led former President Bill Clinton on September 1 to defer the politically charged decision on when to take the first steps toward going beyond testing to start deploying a missile defense.

Russia, China and many U.S. allies strongly oppose U.S. plans to field any such shield for fear it would trigger a new arms race.

The July 14 test will involve the same components as the last one, including a modified Minuteman 2 intercontinental ballistic missile carrying a dummy warhead and a single decoy. About 20 minutes after it is launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, a prototype interceptor missile carrying a prototype ``kill vehicle'' will be launched from Kwajalein Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, 4,800 miles away in the Pacific Ocean. If everything goes as planned, the intercept should take place 10 minutes later about 140 miles above the central Pacific during the ``midcourse'' phase of the target warhead's flight.

The Pentagon's Ballistic Missile Defense Organization said the flight test ``launch window'' was scheduled for 9:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. EDT.

Boeing Co. is the lead system integrator for U.S. missile defense. TRW Inc. builds the battle command, control and communications system. Raytheon Corp. builds the ''exoatmospheric kill vehicle'' and Lockheed Martin Corp. is prime contractor on the current booster system.

The project is estimated to cost as much $60 billion for the land-based leg of interceptors, radar stations and battle management network. The Bush administration has said it plans to build a ``layered'' shield involving ground, sea and space-based systems to cope with what President Bush perceives as a growing threat of ballistic missiles in the hands of unpredictable foes.

July 6 2001
MISSILE INTERCEPT TEST PLANNED FOR JULY 14
United States Department of Defense
NEWS RELEASE
On the web: http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Jul2001/b07062001_bt300-01.html
Media contact: newsdesk@osd.pentagon.mil or +1 (703) 697-5131
Public contact: defenselink@osd.pentagon.mil or +1 (703) 697-5737
No. 300-01

As part of the Defense Department's ongoing robust research and development effort for missile defense, the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) will conduct a flight test to include the planned intercept of a long-range ballistic missile target on Saturday, July 14, 2001. The flight test launch window is scheduled for 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. EDT.

The test will involve the launch of a Multi-Service Launch System (MSLS) from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The MSLS, a modified Minuteman II intercontinental ballistic missile, will carry a mock warhead and a single decoy. About 20 minutes after the MSLS is launched, and about 4,800 miles away, a prototype interceptor missile carrying a prototype exoatmospheric kill vehicle (EKV) will launch from the Ronald Reagan Missile Test Facility at Kwajalein Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. About 10 minutes later the intercept should take place at an altitude of approximately 140 miles above the central Pacific Ocean during the midcourse phase of the target warhead's flight.

This will be an integrated system test, with all representative system elements participating: space-based missile warning sensor; ground-based early warning radar; the prototype X-Band radar at Kwajalein Atoll; and the battle management, command, control and communications system located at the Joint National Test Facility in Colorado Springs, Colo. Since the system is in its research and development phase, these elements serve as either prototypes or surrogates for system elements which are in the developmental stage and have not yet been produced for actual operational use.

This will be the fourth intercept test of the Midcourse Defense Segment (formerly National Missile Defense) research and development program. The first test on Oct. 3, 1999 resulted in the successful intercept of a ballistic missile target. The second test took place on Jan. 19, 2000 and did not achieve an intercept due to a clogged cooling pipe on the EKV, but did successfully test the integrated system of elements. The third test, on July 8, 2000, did not result in an intercept due to the failure of the EKV to separate from the booster rocket.

More information can be obtained at the BMDO website, http://www.acq.osd.mil/bmdo/.

A separate press advisory concerning details for news coverage will be issued next week. News correspondents may call Air Force Lt. Col. Rick Lehner, BMDO External Affairs, at (703) 604-3186 or (703) 697-8997.

6 July 2001
Pentagon Sets Missile Defense Test
By ROBERT BURNS,
AP Military Writer

A modified Minuteman II intercontinental ballistic missile carrying a mock warhead and a single decoy will be launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., and about 20 minutes later an interceptor missile carrying a prototype ``kill vehicle'' will launch from Kwajalein Atoll in the central Pacific.

If all goes as planned the ``kill vehicle'' - a computer-guided device with its own sensors - will crash into the ICBM about 10 minutes later about 140 miles above the Pacific Ocean, disintegrating the target by the force of impact.

The decoy aboard the ICBM is meant to challenge the interceptor's sensors, which are designed to distinguish between warheads and decoys. Critics of missile defense say this is one of the hardest engineering challenges for the interceptor - to defeat simple measures to fool the sensors.

Also involved in the test will be a satellite-based missile warning system, a ground-based early warning radar, a prototype X-band radar on Kwajalein Atoll and a battle management system at Colorado Springs, Colo.

The July 14 test will not have as much at stake, politically, as last July's effort, which was the second consecutive failure. Based in part on that record, President Clinton announced last Sept. 1 that anti-missile technologies were not sufficiently advanced in testing to commit to deploying a missile defense.

President Bush,however, took office in January promising to pursue a more ambitious anti-missile program, and his proposed 2002 defense budget provides $8.3 billion for missile defense research and testing - a nearly 40 percent increase over this year.

The previous intercept tests have cost about $100 million each. The Pentagon announced no price tag for the next one.

The failure last July was attributed to the warhead-busting ``kill vehicle'' not separating from the booster rocket. Because it did not separate, it never activated the sensors it uses to hunt down its target. The interceptor passed harmlessly by the target.

The reason for the failure was so unexpected that the three-star Air Force general in charge of the project told reporters minutes afterward that it was ``not even on my list'' of potential malfunctions.

A Jan. 19, 2000 intercept also failed. The Pentagon blamed moisture inside the kill vehicle, which prevented it from using heat-seeking devices to ``see'' its target. The first intercept test, on Oct. 3, 1999, succeeded in striking the target.