РСН. 10:21:21
Успешно завершилось очередное испытание прототипа ракеты-перехватчика в рамках программы создания американской системы противоракетной обороны. Об этом сообщила журналистам представитель Пентагона Шерил Ирвин.
Модифицированная межконтинентальная баллистическая ракета "Минитмен-2", запущенная с авиабазы Ванденберг в Калифорнии, была сбита ракетой-перехватчиком, которая стартовала с ракетного полигона, расположенного на расстоянии более 7 тыс. км на атолле Кваджалейн в Тихом океане. Ракета-перехватчик поразила основную боеголовку, успешно определив ее среди ложных целей. Перехват произошел в космосе на высоте около 225 километров. В испытании были задействованы все элементы создаваемой системы ПРО - спутник раннего предупреждения, наземные радары, а также военные центры управления и связи.
Это уже шестое летное испытание элементов системы ПРО. Из ранее проведенных пяти испытаний три завершились успешно.
http://www.utro.ru/news/2002031610212166970.shtml
18 March 2002
The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has revealed a fourth successful interception of an intercontinental ballistic missile target as part of the development process for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) Segment, formerly known as National Missile Defense.
The test involved a Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) target vehicle, launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, at 9:11 p.m. EST, and a prototype interceptor launched approximately 20 minutes later from the Ronald Reagan Missile Site, Kwajalein Atoll, in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The interception took place roughly 10 minutes after the interceptor was launched, at an altitude more than 140 miles above the earth during the midcourse phase of the target's flight.
The test demonstrated exoatmospheric kill vehicle (EKV) flight performance and "hit to kill" technology to intercept and destroy a long-range ballistic missile target. It further involved the successful integrated operation of space and ground-based sensors and radars, as well as the Battle Management, Command Control and Communications (BMC3) function to detect the launch of the target missile.
''Tonight's test further challenged the system by increasing the number of decoys from one to three, demonstrating the BMC3's ability to perform against more complex target suites,'' said Dr. Donald C. Winter, TRW's lead executive to MDA, and president and CEO, TRW Systems.
This success drew praise from Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz speaking in an interview on CNN. "We're in a development program. People need to understand that. We are going to push where there's success," Wolfowitz said. "It's an important area where we going to go down the avenues that work and cut off the avenues that don't work." However, he admitted that the programme has not yet graduated to sufficiently realistic decoys.
The successful destruction of the target, rather than one of the three decoy balloons, represents the fourth success in six attempts as the programme progresses from shaky beginnings. The MDA team will now assess the data from the test.
http://defence-data.com/current/page13905.htm