PRESS ADVISORY from the United States Department of Defense
No. 174-P PRESS ADVISORY October 8, 2002
The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) will conduct a developmental flight test to include the planned intercept of a
long-range ballistic missile target in support of the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) test program on Oct. 14,
2002.
The test will involve the launch of an Orbital Suborbital Program long-range missile from Vandenberg Air Force Base,
Calif. The OSP, a modified Minuteman II intercontinental ballistic missile, will carry a mock warhead and decoys. About
20 minutes after the target missile is launched, and about 4,800 miles away, a ground-based interceptor (GBI) 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 is planned to 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 GMD battle
management, command, control and communications system located at Kwajalein Atoll and the Joint National Integration
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.
A U.S. Navy Aegis destroyer, the USS John Paul Jones, will participate in the test, using its SPY-1 radar to gather data
about the target and interceptor missiles. While the ship's radar will not take part in directing the interceptor to its
target, the data gathered will be used to confirm the potential role the SPY-1 radar and the Aegis weapon system could
play in a defense against long-range missile targets. This will be the first time an Aegis radar is participating in a
GMD flight test.
This will be the seventh intercept test of the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense element research and development program.
The first test on Oct. 2, 1999 resulted in the successful intercept of a ballistic missile target. The second test took
place on Jan. 18, 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 when the EKV and
booster rocket failed to separate. The fourth test, on July 14, 2001, achieved a successful intercept of a ballistic
missile target, as did tests on Dec. 2, 2001 and March 15, 2002. These last three tests used all GMD components as part
of a fully integrated flight test.
News media point of contact is Lt. Col. Rick Lehner, MDA External Affairs, at 703-697-8997 or Cheryl Irwin, Office of
the Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs) at 703-697-5331.
ENDS