Manufacturer puts final touches to rudimentary interceptor system scheduled to go on alert at the end of September

Boeing is scrambling to complete the finishing touches to a rudimentary ground-based missile defence (GMD) system set to go on alert for the USA before 30 September.

A final integration and checkout has tested the software and fibre-optic cables linking the system's widely scattered components. Dozens of system processors, meanwhile, are undergoing a final series of laboratory bench-tests in Huntsville, Alabama.

Boeing vice-president and general manager for GMD Marty Coyne says "initial feedback is positive", adding that no major hardware changes are expected to be required before the system is scheduled to go on alert.

Boeing's trial runs are serving as a last-minute dress rehearsal for the next highly anticipated - and long-delayed - integrated flight test, dubbed IFT-13C. Nearly 21 months have passed since the US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) staged its last attempt to intercept an incoming ballistic missile target, a test foiled by a manufacturing glitch in the interceptor's booster.

MDA has since refocused on the "initial defensive operations" goal, which essentially means converting a planned GMD testbed based in Alaska and California into a basic operational shield against North Korean missiles. Critics say the components of the alert system have never been tested at the same time in a flight test, and IFT-13C promises no change.

MDA is careful not to bill the next flight test expected in late August, as an intercept attempt, allowing the agency to claim success even if the interceptor misses the incoming warhead. But IFT-13C is designed to slightly improve the operational reality of the test envelope. MDA's practice of launching targets from the Marshall Islands is being shifted to a site in Kodiak, Alaska, which is more comparable with a North Korean launch trajectory. The test also will include radar inputs from a US Navy Aegis cruiser and the Cobra Dane sensor in Shemya, Alaska, which are both critical elements of the early alert system.

The initial capability also is to include an early-warning radar at Beale AFB, California, which has been used to track previous test launches. Defense Satellite Programme spacecraft also will serve as the "bell-ringer", alerting the system of a missile launch.

More detailed targeting information is to be provided by the Aegis cruiser and radars at Beale and Shemya.

STEPHEN TRIMBLE / WASHINGTON DC

Source: Flight International