New missile tests BARKING SANDS, Kauai >> The Army's and Navy's new missile defense systems will have guidance systems so precise that they will be able to shatter enemy missiles in flight -- literally like stopping a bullet with another bullet, military officials say.
due for Kauai
Anti-missile optionsBy Anthony Sommer
tsommer@starbulletin.comThe new systems are expected to be major improvements over existing systems -- such as the Army's Patriot 2 and the Navy's Standard 2 -- that rely on setting off large explosions close to hostile rockets to disable them, according to the Army's Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) agency.
The Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility continues extensive testing of the next generation of missile defense weapons for U.S. ships. Work is beginning to bring to Kauai in 2006 a similar Army weapon designed to protect ground troops, says Dave Coombe, the THAAD site manager at the Pacific Missile Range.
Officials believe this will be the first time a Navy facility has been chosen as a test site for a missile being developed by another branch of the military.
For the Army, introduction of the THAAD missile means replacing the Patriot, which has been in service since 1981 and is being used to protect against hostile rockets in Iraq.
The latest version, the Patriot Advanced Capability 3 missile, is scheduled for delivery this year but is only an interim upgrade until THAAD is ready.
For Kauai it means the island's largest employer, the Pacific Missile Range -- with roughly 100 Navy personnel and 800 civilian employees and contract workers -- will have a major new mission. It will arrive at about the time the testing of the Navy's sea-based midcourse defense missile is wrapping up.
Just before any missile test, the island's hotels begin filling with engineers and technicians. Range tenants spend almost $10 million for rooms, restaurants and rental cars every year.
Congress had scrapped the Pacific Missile Range's next planned series of test shots involving a short-range version of the same Navy missile that has been undergoing tests offshore of Kauai since 1999. The new project was scheduled to come to Kauai next but was running way over budget, and key subsystems need major redesign work.
But at the same time, U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye confirmed rumors that the THAAD, scheduled for advanced testing at the Army's Kwajalein Missile Range, would come to Kauai instead to replace the tests of the Navy missile that had been canceled. Inouye, who has been a strong supporter of the Pacific Missile Range, is believed to have been highly influential in engineering the relocation of the THAAD tests.
The Army opened a one-man office at the Pacific Missile Range in October. The next month, a delegation of Army officials from Redstone Arsenal in Alabama came to Kauai to watch the sea-based midcourse missile knock down its third target in as many attempts.
Coombe said work is under way on contracts to ready the Navy range for testing the Army missile, and he expects his office to expand by next year.
THAAD has been under development since 1992 at White Sands, N.M., and had a series of five successive failures in the mid-1990s. But it then racked up a record for kills of target missiles. Additional tests are scheduled for White Sands in 2004 and 2005 before the program moves to Kauai early in 2006.
As development encroaches on older testing facilities such as Redstone and White Sands, the huge area of empty sky around the Pacific Missile Range is becoming popular with military contractors. It has 42,000 square miles of open ocean outside of shipping and airline routes.
In a telephone interview from Redstone Arsenal, Col. Patrick O'Reilly, THAAD project manager, said the THAAD is a major improvement over the existing Patriot system.
THAAD not only has terminal phase capabilities (meaning it can be used against incoming missiles), but, unlike the Patriot, it also can be used against hostile missiles in their midcourse phase high above the atmosphere, O'Reilly said.
One of THAAD's major advantages is that it is much smaller than the Patriot system. A Patriot launcher and all of its support equipment would fill a C-5A transport, one of the largest planes in the world. The THAAD system can be loaded into a small C-130 turboprop.
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BARKING SANDS, Kauai >> Two of the three missiles that will make up the United States' missile defense system by the end of this decade will have been tested at the Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility on the western tip of Kauai. A rainbow of possible
responses to missile attackBy Anthony Sommer
tsommer@starbulletin.comHere is a snapshot of the array of anti-missile weapons being developed by the Army, Navy and Air Force under the Missile Defense Agency:
>> Boost Phase Intercept: Destroying an enemy missile within five minutes of its launch cannot be accomplished by a missile. Instead, the U.S. Air Force is developing an airborne laser system.A modified Boeing 747 designated the YAL-1A Attack Laser already has been delivered to the Air Force and is scheduled to begin testing at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., next year.
>> Midcourse intercept: Hitting a missile immediately after its thrusters have shot off and while it is following a predictable and relatively slow glide path is considered the best opportunity for a kill. Two missiles are being developed to accomplish this:
The ground-based midcourse defense system is the long-range version, designed to intercept intercontinental ballistic missiles. An Army program, the missile is being tested at the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Test Site at the Kwajalein Missile range in the Marshall Islands. It has successfully destroyed ICBMs launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
The sea-based midcourse defense system is designed to intercept mid- and short-range enemy missiles with a variant of the Navy's Standard missile launched from Aegis cruisers and destroyers. It has been undergoing tests at the Pacific Missile Range on Kauai since 1999 and has successfully hit every target rocket. It is scheduled to be delivered to Navy ships in 2005.
>> Terminal Phase Intercept: The Army's THAAD (Theater High Altitude Air Defense) missile will replace the Patriot late in this decade. The THAAD has been undergoing preliminary tests at the Army's White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico and is scheduled to begin advanced tests on Kauai in early 2006.
Pacific Missile Range Facility
