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Saudi Arabia Shoots Down a Scud? June 6, 2015.
Saudi Arabia is claiming that it used two Patriot missiles to shoot down a Scud ballistic missile launched from Yemen early in the morning of June 6. The Patriot battery was likely located at the King...
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Updated List of Claims about GMD Effectiveness (June 16, 2015)
This is an updated list (previous version was January 16, 2014) of claims by U.S. government officials about the effectiveness of the U.S. Ground-Based Midcourse (GMD) national missile defense system....
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First Aegis Ashore Intercept Test Aborted. Does this Raise Issues for Planned...
On Friday (June 26) it was reported that MDA had aborted an intercept test of the Aegis Ashore system following a failure of the target missile. Although not stated by MDA, the aborted test was...
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THAAD Battery to be Permanently Deployed in Guam (July 16, 2015)
The U.S. Army has announced plans to make the deployment of a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system in Guam permanent. This would be the first permanent deployment of a...
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Aegis Ashore vs THAAD (July 27, 2015)
In a comment to my post of July 16 about the THAAD deployment in Guam being made permanent, a question was raised about why THAAD was proposed for South Korea and Aegis Ashore for Romania and Poland...
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Updated Table of Radar Participation in GMD Intercept Tests Using...
–The PAVE PAWS radars in AK and MA are not yet part of the GMD system. –Because of its location and orientation, Cobra Dane has never participated in a GMD intercept test. –The BMEWS radars in...
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Updated list of launch times for GMD Intercept Tests (August 10, 2015)
This post updates my post of June 3, 2013 by adding FTG-07 and FTG-06b. The table shows that MDA has still not conducted a GMD intercept test in which the target was not illuminated by the Sun....
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How Many Aegis BMD Ships in 2040? (December 13, 2015)
For another project, I was interested in how many SM-3 Block IIA interceptors and ships capable of launching them the United States would have in the future. This post is the result of attempting to...
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How Many SM-3 Block IIA Missiles? (January 25, 2016)
In a previous post, I projected the number of Aegis BMD ships, and in particular the number of ships with the “advanced” BMD capability, though 2045. I did this primarily because I was interested in...
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A Three-Stage Two-Stage GBI Interceptor (February 2, 2016)
One thing that was surprising (to me, at least) about Missile Defense Agency (MDA) Director Admiral James Syring’s January 19 2016 presentation at the Center for Strategic and International Studies was...
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Updated List of Claims about GMD Effectiveness (April 14, 2016)
This is an updated list (previous version was June 16, 2015) of claims by U.S. government officials about the effectiveness of the U.S. Ground-Based Midcourse (GMD) national missile defense system. It...
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Update on Future Ground-Based Midcourse (GMD) Flight Tests (April 20, 2016)
An updated description of planned GMD flight tests (last update was my post of April 12, 2015) as best I can reconstruct them. Between now and mid-2021, it appears that MDA plans five intercept and...
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Strategic Capabilities of SM-3 Block IIA Interceptors (June 30, 2016)
In two previous posts, I made estimated projections forward in time of the number of U.S. Navy ballistic missile defense (BMD) capable ships and the number of SM-3 BMD interceptors.[1] These...
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SM-3 Block IIA Testing Chronology (July 7, 2016)
SM-3 Block IIA Testing Chronology SCD PTV-01 (October 2013): SM-3 Cooperative Development (SCD) Propulsion Test Vehicle (PTV)-01. A test of the Block IIA booster rocket and canister, reportedly...
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THAAD Flight and Intercept Tests Since 2005 (July 10, 2016)
Flight tests of the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system since developmental testing resumed in 2005 and planned future tests. Figure 1. THAAD intercept tests since 2005. In April 2012,...
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THAAD Radar Ranges (July 17, 2018)
A central element of the debate surrounding the recent decision by South Korea to allow the United States to deploy a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system on its territory...
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The Sea-Based Terminal Program and the SM-6 Dual Interceptors (July 25, 2016)
Sea-Based Terminal Most of the attention given the US Navy’s Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) program focuses on its various versions of the SM-3 anti-missile interceptor. These missiles, the...
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MDA’s Space-Based Kill Assessment (SKA) Experiment (August 9, 2016)
The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) plans to deploy a Space-based Kill Assessment (SKA) system by about mid-2017. The SKA system, which MDA describes as an experiment, will consist of small sensor...
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Chronology of MDA’s Plans for Laser Boost-Phase Defense (August 26, 2016)
The Missile Defense Agency plans to produce “in the 2025 time frame” an airborne laser capable of destroying ballistic missiles in their boost phase.[1] As a start in looking at this program, I first...
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Did the Divert Thrusters Fail in the CTV-02+ Test? (January 18, 2017)
On January 28, 2016 the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) conducted its most recent flight test of its Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) national missile defense system. One of the key objectives of...
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