William Atkins
Saturday, 06 December 2008 21:07
Science -
Space
Page 1 of 4
On December 5, 2008, the Missile Defense Agency, within the U.S. Pentagon, announced that its interceptor missile destroyed a target missile meant to simulate a North Korean attack, calling it “the largest, most complex test … ever done.”
On Friday, the U.S. Department of Defense (
DoD) shot down a simulated enemy missile with its Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI) missile.
The head of the Missile Defense Agency (
MDA) called the simulation
“the largest, most complex test we have ever done.” [Fox News: “
Pentagon Downs Missile in Simulated Attack to Test Proposed Shield”]
The silo-launched Ground-Based Interceptor (
GBI) missile, whose design and manufacture is coordinated by defense contractor The Boeing Company, is a weapon component of the Missile Defense Agency’s Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system.
It is part of the larger U.S. Ballistic Missile Defense System.
The GBI consists of a multi-stage rocket orbital booster vehicle (OBV), built by Orbital Sciences Corporation, and an infrared-seeking exoatmospheric (kinetic) kill vehicle (EKV), built by Raytheon.
The system is intended to intercept ballistic missile warheads, such as those that might be launched by Iran or North Korea, within the exoatmosphere of Earth (the atmosphere above 75 miles [120 kilometers] above the Earth’s surface)
The test was designated as Flight Test Ground-based Midcourse Defense-05 (FTG-05). The FTG-05 consisted of a simulated attack to test the abilities of the U.S. defense shield from long-range ballistic missiles originating in countries that might attack in the future, such as North Korea.
Read page two for details of the launching of the target missile, and then the interceptor missile.
