Ground Based Interceptor (GBI)

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CTV-01 test just occurred on 27 January 2013.

No target involved.

The EKV separated from the booster, and carried out a series of preprogrammed manouvers to validate that the problem which caused the last test in December 2010 to fail had been correctly identified and fixed.

The test was apparently a success; which validates the CE-II (Capability II) EKV that has been sidelined from being deployed for the last two years due to the FTG-06a failure.
 
Success!!

http://www.defense.gov/Releases/Release.aspx?ReleaseID=16788
 
http://aviationweek.com/defense/pentagon-s-new-kill-vehicle-strategy-expected-soon
 
http://breakingdefense.com/2015/06/missile-defense-strategy-not-sustainable-salvation-lies-in-rd-brig-gen-todorov/
 
http://missiledefenseadvocacy.org/alert/on-the-offense/

GBI test
 
bobbymike said:
http://missiledefenseadvocacy.org/alert/on-the-offense/

GBI test

Raytheon press release.
http://raytheon.mediaroom.com/2016-01-28-Raytheon-kill-vehicle-succeeds-in-developmental-flight-test

Raytheon kill vehicle succeeds in developmental flight test
Mission validates thruster redesign for enhanced ballistic missile defense
VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif., Jan. 28, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- A Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV) successfully completed a data-gathering mission during a Missile Defense Agency flight test. The mission's objective was to observe in-flight performance of redesigned components and gain valuable information on evolving threat classes.

EKVs are designed to destroy incoming ballistic threats while they are still in space. As part of the MDA test of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system, a ballistic missile target was launched and purposely not intercepted to demonstrate for maximum maneuvering and data collection.

The successful mission proved the effectiveness of a recent redesign of the EKV thrusters, which provides the control necessary for lethal impact with incoming threats while safely outside of the Earth's atmosphere. The testing was supported by Raytheon's sea-based X-band radar (SBX) and AN/TPY-2 radar – both play critical roles in supporting the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system.

"This was a remarkable data-collection opportunity," said Dr. Taylor W. Lawrence, president of Raytheon Missile Systems. "These are among our industry's most complex systems. Testing is critically important to ensuring the advancement of reliable kill vehicles for the protection of the U.S. homeland."
 
The Missile Defense Advocacy website should find a better writer, their articles are borderline incoherent.
 
MDA seeks industry ideas for new GBI booster upgrade

The Missile Defense Agency is seeking ideas from industry on new booster designs for the Ground-based Interceptor, and is signaling plans for the government to be the lead systems integrator -- supplanting an industry prime contractor -- in a project to upgrade the entire Ground-based Midcourse Defense guided missile fleet with nearly 80 booster stacks beginning in 2023.
-----------------------------------
Good news for the solid rocket motor industry along with the GBSD.
 
Unfortunately, this could be considered to be yet another case of too little, too late.
 
Grey Havoc said:
Unfortunately, this could be considered to be yet another case of too little, too late.

Better late than never. Still, I think we both know this is nothing but talk. One hears of all this new plans for speeding up carrier acquisition, restarting the F-22 line, etc. etc. etc. and all the while they cut the defense budget. Putin and Xi must wake each day wondering what new gift the idiotic West will lay at their feet.
 
http://www.nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/americas-missile-defense-disaster-music-russia-chinas-ears-16015
 
http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/america-needs-new-kill-vehicle-defeat-incoming-nukes-16096
 
MDA approves preliminary design, 'dual-pol' tech for Long Range Discrimination Radar

The Missile Defense Agency has approved Lockheed Martin's preliminary design for the Long Range Discrimination Radar -- a program central to Pentagon plans to improve homeland defense by bolstering the Ground-based Midcourse Defense program with an unprecedented ability to detect ballistic missile threats by the end of this decade.

The LRDR is a nearly $1 billion project to emplace a new radar in Alaska by 2020 as part of the agency's plans to upgrade the GMD program to what it calls the Robust Homeland Defense configuration by providing an improved persistent view of long-range ballistic missiles -- particularly those launched from North Korea -- during the midcourse of flight.

Following a March 21-22 review chaired by two senior MDA officials -- Keith Englander, director for engineering, and Rich Ritter, director for command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance -- the government approved the development project to proceed with further design efforts, according to Chandra Marshall, Lockheed Martin program director for LRDR.

The two-day assessment, at Lockheed's Moorestown, NJ, facility, included assessments of a prototype LRDR system.

"Lockheed Martin utilized a scaled LRDR system to successfully demonstrate Critical Technology Elements in a relevant end-to-end environment," according to an April 20 company statement.

Marshall, in an April 20 interview with reporters, declined to identify specific technologies assessed during the review, citing classification sensitivities.

"But I can tell you that one of the key areas, one of the technology upgrades we made . . . is introducing dual-pol technology," Marshall said, using the shorthand for "dual-polarized." This technology -- used today by weather-forecasting radar -- "improves the ability to maximize discrimination," she said.

By incorporating dual-pol technology, the LRDR promises to provide a two-dimensional view of a ballistic missile's track. The two-face radar will send both horizontally and vertically polarized electromagnetic waves; when these bounce off a threatening ballistic missile and are received back, each wave is separately processed and then synthesized to produce a two-dimensional view.

During the review, Lockheed persuaded MDA officials that key technologies for the new radar are Technology Readiness Level 6, meaning a system or subsystem prototype was demonstrated in a relevant environment, according to Marshall. The program also demonstrated Manufacturing Level Readiness 6, which indicates ability to proceed into engineering and manufacturing development.

Next month, MDA will review Lockheed's design proposal for the equipment shelter that will house the new radar, due to eventually be installed at Clear Air Force Station, AK. In September, MDA plans a critical design review of the new radar followed by a final design review in November; a production decision is expected in the spring of 2018, according to Marshall.

Lockheed is due to deliver the radar to MDA in 2020, she said.

The high-powered S-band radar incorporates gallium-nitride components and is similar to the Space Fence radar system Lockheed is building for the Air Force “but is additionally capable of discriminating threats at extreme distances using the inherent sideband capability of the hardware coupled with advanced software algorithms,” according to the company statement.

"The key part of this radar is the ability to do precise, long-distance detection and characterization of ballistic missiles," said Marshall. "This radar can do that better than any radar fielded today."

Gen. John Hyten, head of U.S. Strategic Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee on April 4 that the LRDR is a top priority.

Along with the LRDR, MDA plans other enhancements as part of the Robust Homeland Defense modernization phase of the GMD program, including the Upgraded Early Warning Radar, a redesigned kill vehicle, a new ground-based interceptor booster design -- the C3 -- to outfit the fleet with new 50-inch-diameter boost vehicles to lift the exoatmospheric kill vehicle in a position to intercept an incoming ballistic missile warhead, and other ground system improvements.

In October 2015, MDA awarded Lockheed a contract potentially worth $784 million to develop, deploy, test, and operate the LRDR. MDA's fiscal year 2017 budget request outlines plans to spend $896 million on the new radar between 2015 and 2021.
 
I would guess that some of the impetus for an upgraded booster is to accommodate the MIRV'd interceptors from the MOKV program.
 
http://breakingdefense.com/2017/04/missile-defense-radar-passes-key-review-lockheed-lrdr/
 
^this line from the article made me laugh:

The “discrimination” in the name doesn’t mean the radar’s racist.

:p the day is going to come when SJWs will be clamping down on all the technical terminology we use in our engineering work, I sure as hell hope I'll be retired from the industry by then, lol...
 
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fredymac said:
I would guess that some of the impetus for an upgraded booster is to accommodate the MIRV'd interceptors from the MOKV program.

My impression was the software selectable 2 or 3 stage burn would facilitate (along with the improved sensors) Shoot-look-shoot.
 
bobbymike said:
MDA seeks industry ideas for new GBI booster upgrade

The Missile Defense Agency is seeking ideas from industry on new booster designs for the Ground-based Interceptor, and is signaling plans for the government to be the lead systems integrator -- supplanting an industry prime contractor -- in a project to upgrade the entire Ground-based Midcourse Defense guided missile fleet with nearly 80 booster stacks beginning in 2023.
-----------------------------------
Good news for the solid rocket motor industry along with the GBSD.

The 2012 NAS study of missile defense suggested using the KEI first stage for the missile interceptor launch. The KEI first stage would give the overall architecture a Shoot-Look-Shook ability and allow a heavier kill vehicle with better sensors.

It is sad that, only now, the missile defense agency is looking at that advice. Worse that they just aren't using the existing technology to get something done soon.
 
The latest DSB report concluded that the MDA would require approximately $2 Billion in additional annual funding to keep up with the advances in the threat. The burden of buying intercepters needs to be shifted to the services that operate the equipment and the MDA needs to concentrate on improving systems, developing capability and R&D/S&T efforts.
 
DrRansom said:
The 2012 NAS study of missile defense suggested using the KEI first stage for the missile interceptor launch. The KEI first stage would give the overall architecture a Shoot-Look-Shook ability and allow a heavier kill vehicle with better sensors.

It is sad that, only now, the missile defense agency is looking at that advice. Worse that they just aren't using the existing technology to get something done soon.

IIRC, the range penalty for the two-stage KEI version of GBI necessitated (at a minimum) four CONUS sites.
Then there was the cost of maintaining (in the interim) a split inventory.

I think MDA is getting most of what they need from the 2/3 stage selectable booster stack and improved discrimination.
 
marauder2048 said:
IIRC, the range penalty for the two-stage KEI version of GBI necessitated (at a minimum) four CONUS sites.
Then there was the cost of maintaining (in the interim) a split inventory.

I think MDA is getting most of what they need from the 2/3 stage selectable booster stack and improved discrimination.

From what I remember of the NAS study, they said a two stage KEI would enable Shoot-Look-Shoot from Iranian and North Korean missiles, using two / three launch points. Also, do you know if the new sensor will be networked? A key point of the NAS study was that the infrared sensor of the first missile was critical to enable high quality target discrimination.
 
DrRansom said:
marauder2048 said:
IIRC, the range penalty for the two-stage KEI version of GBI necessitated (at a minimum) four CONUS sites.
Then there was the cost of maintaining (in the interim) a split inventory.

I think MDA is getting most of what they need from the 2/3 stage selectable booster stack and improved discrimination.

From what I remember of the NAS study, they said a two stage KEI would enable Shoot-Look-Shoot from Iranian and North Korean missiles, using two / three launch points. Also, do you know if the new sensor will be networked? A key point of the NAS study was that the infrared sensor of the first missile was critical to enable high quality target discrimination.

IIRC, imaging LADAR returns would be downlinked via dual-band (X and S band) datalink.
 
MDA soliciting industry ideas for a 'transportable' Ground-based Interceptor


The Missile Defense Agency is soliciting ideas for a new variant of the Ground-based Interceptor -- one that would not be emplaced in a silo as currently utilized by the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system, but moved around, presumably on the back of a heavy truck, in an effort to give commanders more flexible options to defend the nation.

On April 28, MDA published a request for information seeking industry ideas for a "transportable Ground-based Interceptor," an initiative that aims to satisfy a statutory directive for the agency to assess options for a version of the guided-missile interceptor that could be launched from multiple locations. The agency is seeking industry ideas in the form of white papers by June 2.

"MDA will use industry's technical responses to support 'evaluation of alternative GBI deployments' as directed in Fiscal Year 2017 National Defense Authorization Act," the solicitation, published in Federal Business Opportunities, states. MDA makes clear that the government has no plan to develop or procure such a system, and is exploring the concept because of a statutory requirement.

MDA is required to prepare a report that outlines a potential transportable GBI capability, including a "detailed program development production and deployment cost and schedule for the earliest technically possible deployment," and comparative cost to the fixed-based GBI, according to the FY-17 act. The report is also to address technical readiness and "feasibility of a transportable ground-based interceptor as a means to deploy additional ground-based interceptors" to defend the nation against a limited ballistic missile attack.

MDA, according to the notice, will focus on "transportable" capability, not "mobile" capability, seeking ideas for a GBI that could reposition, emplace and be ready to launch "within days" as opposed to be able to do the same "within minutes."

"A 'mobile' capability also tends to drive complex operations concepts, special security requirements, mobile command, control, communications, and a level of launcher sophistication that pushes costs to unsustainable levels," MDA notes.

MDA seeks industry ideas to address questions set forth in the defense authorization act, including deployment and operating concepts; technical descriptions, enabling technologies, technical risks and relevant technical readiness levels.

MDA also wants a "rough order of magnitude" cost estimate for such a capability.

Proposed concepts "must show tangible benefits" to the Ballistic Missile Defense System and either the "potential to significantly reduce costs over fixed-site acquisition in order to increase projected GBI inventory with no loss in GMD system effectiveness" or the potential to "significantly increase effectiveness or operational utility over fixed-site capability," according to the notice.

The GMD program is designed to defend the nation against a limited attack from North Korean- or Iranian-launched intermediate- and long-range ballistic missiles by intercepting the incoming warheads midway through their flight path. In response to North Korean technical advances and provocations in 2013, the Pentagon set a goal to expand the number of fielded GBIs at Ft. Greely, AK, and Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA, from 30 to 44 by the end of 2017.

MDA, also in response to congressional direction, is exploring the idea of an East Coast GBI site as a hedge against a potential, future Iranian long-range ballistic missile threat.

Boeing is the lead industry team for GMD development, integration, testing, operation and sustainment and Northrop Grumman oversees ground system elements and supports operation and sustainment and system engineering test support. Boeing, as prime contractor, integrates a Raytheon-built exoatmospheric kill vehicle on a booster stack built by Orbital Sciences Corp.
 
Was hoping 'mobile' as an easy conversion to a future IRBM prompt strike missile
 
bobbymike said:
Was hoping 'mobile' as an easy conversion to a future IRBM prompt strike missile

"MDA, according to the notice, will focus on "transportable" capability, not "mobile" capability, seeking ideas for a GBI that could reposition, emplace and be ready to launch "within days" as opposed to be able to do the same "within minutes."

Why not just do it right? ::)

"A 'mobile' capability also tends to drive complex operations concepts, special security requirements, mobile command, control, communications, and a level of launcher sophistication that pushes costs to unsustainable levels," MDA notes.

Funny, Russia, China, India, and even North Korea manage to make mobile missiles doable. What is it about the North American continent that makes it unpossible?
 
I assume they want to look at this for the East coast site(s) that the Congress wants them to work on next. I think mobile vs transportable comes down to cost and the trades that entails (would you want to pay for mobility at the expense of greater number of interceptors for a finite budget for example). Wouldn't/shouldn't they look to put an LRDR on the East coast before they place interceptors there if indeed this is still the direction the Congress wants MDA to focus on?
 
KEI (as originally envisioned) would have split the difference with about a three hour emplacement time.
 

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marauder2048 said:
KEI (as originally envisioned) would have split the difference with about a three hour emplacement time.
A couple hundred on Guam with a SWERVE on top in a super hardened 'dense pack' would work for me....... :eek:
 
https://www.defensetech.org/2017/04/27/hawaii-may-get-missile-interceptor-site-defend-north-korea/?ESRC=deftech.sm
 
There is a difference between road mobile and air transportable. For the size missile in question if you work the numbers you'll see that the vehicle weight increases significantly if you require it to absorb the loads attributable to the jet efflux or even gas generator developed thrust at launch. You need mass to resist that force and provide a stable launch platform thanks to a gent named Newton. A TEL for this size missile could very well be too large and heavy to transport in a C-17. Making it transportable allows you to use the vehicle to erect the launch tube (I'm assuming a gas generator cold launch) and move away after suitable bracing is installed. We're talking hours not days but certainly more than minutes of a mobile system. The C-17 can get into short runways much like a C-130 opening up a lot more potential launch sites. So if you want to protect Hawaii, Guam, or our Allies in the Pacific or elsewhere as long as you have radar covering the enemy's launch sites you got a system that can protect them.
 
Transportable?
 

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Someone's best guess here: http://missiledefenseadvocacy.org/missile-defense-systems-2/missile-defense-systems/u-s-deployed-intercept-systems/ground-based-midcourse-defense/
 
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/05/13/military-plans-flight-intercept-test-ballistic-missile.html?ESRC=todayinmil.sm
 
Homeland Missile Defense System Successfully Intercepts ICBM Target
17-NEWS-0003
May 30, 2017

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency, in cooperation with the U.S. Air Force 30th Space Wing, the Joint Functional Component Command for Integrated Missile Defense and U.S. Northern Command, today successfully intercepted an intercontinental ballistic missile target during a test of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) element of the nation's ballistic missile defense system.

This was the first live-fire test event against an ICBM-class target for GMD and the U.S. ballistic missile defense system.

During the test, an ICBM-class target was launched from the Reagan Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. Multiple sensors provided target acquisition and tracking data to the Command, Control, Battle Management and Communication (C2BMC) system. The Sea-Based X-band radar, positioned in the Pacific Ocean, also acquired and tracked the target. The GMD system received the target tracking data and developed a fire control solution to intercept the target.

A ground-based interceptor was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, and its exo-atmospheric kill vehicle intercepted and destroyed the target in a direct collision.

"The intercept of a complex, threat-representative ICBM target is an incredible accomplishment for the GMD system and a critical milestone for
this program," said MDA Director Vice Adm. Jim Syring. "This system is vitally important to the defense of our homeland, and this test demonstrates that we have a capable, credible deterrent against a very real threat. I am incredibly proud of the warfighters who executed this test and who operate this system every day."

Initial indications are that the test met its primary objective, but program officials will continue to evaluate system performance based upon telemetry and other data obtained during the test.

The test, designated Flight Test Ground-Based Interceptor (FTG)-15, will provide the data necessary to assess the performance of the GMD system and provide enhanced homeland defense capabilities.

The GMD element of the ballistic missile defense system provides combatant commanders the capability to engage and destroy intermediate and long-range ballistic missile threats to protect the U.S. The mission of the Missile Defense Agency is to develop and deploy a layered ballistic missile defense system to defend the United States, its deployed forces, allies and friends from limited ballistic missile attacks of all ranges in all phases of flight.

Additional information about all elements of the ballistic missile defense system can be found at www.mda.mil.

https://www.mda.mil/news/17news0003.html
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Hopefully, they'll post images of Orbital ATK's ICBM target.
 
Orbital ATK's IRBM target with a booster.
 

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What distinguishes a "live fire" test from the previous intercepts? For Aegis/THAAD, they have launched targets without notification to the interceptor crew so they had to rely upon detection and identification on their own. However, I haven't seen that defined as "live fire".
 
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/29/us/politics/north-koreas-missiles-us-defense.html
 

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