ADVANCED PATRIOT MISSILE SHOOTS DOWN
SCUD TARGET OVER PACIFIC OCEAN
Success for classified target, sensor experiments
INSIDE THE ARMY, Vol. 9, No. 7, February 17, 1997
A Scud missile acquired by the United States to test its weapons and sensors against real-world threats was shot down by an advanced Patriot missile system early this month, according to government documents and officials.
Officially the Space and Strategic Defense Command and the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization would say only that the Patriot PAC-2 and Guidance Enhanced Missiles, fired Feb. 7 at Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific, hit a classified target. But BMDO Director Lt. Gen. Lester Lyles told a luncheon crowd in Huntsville, AL, last week the target was in fact a Scud missile, several attendees said.
Both the PAC-2 and GEM missiles were fired, but officials said the PAC-2, fired first, was likely responsible for the intercept. The test was designed with two objectives: demonstrating the utility of Kwajalein as a theater missile defense site, and gathering data on the classified target.
Former and current Army officials say the Patriot test's larger significance lies with the target, not the intercept. These officials told Inside Missile Defense last week it was a "Scud-like" target using liquid propellant -- most likely an actual Scud, as Lyles confirmed in his Feb. 13 speech.
The target is a part of a classified program dubbed Willow Dune, Army documents state. While an SSDC press release said the objectives of the test were to "obtain sensor data on target ballistic missiles and to demonstrate the feasibility of [TMD] intercepts," the documents get more specific. They show the intercept was the secondary motive: the "primary objectives" were to "demonstrate target flight test procedures, measure target flight infrared signatures, measure target missile dynamic radar cross section signatures,
and characterize target missile performance."
"The purpose of the test is to not only demonstrate an intercept capability, but lots of sensors, including national assets, were used," said a source familiar with the test program. "We calculated a hell of a lot of data."
As part of the test, the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization carried out a system integration test, which was deemed successful.
In addition to Kwajalein radars, other sensors were gathered at the Atoll to observe the target in action. They include the Theater High Altitude Area Defense ground based radar, the Airborne Surveillance Testbed, the High Altitude Observatory/Infrared Instrumentation System, Cobra Judy, an Aegis ship, and P-3 aircraft. The "national assets" used included the Defense Support Program, an official said.
The Patriot missiles were launched from Meck Island toward the target, which was fired from Bigen Island, Aur Atoll. According to documents, early returns show the target "performed flawlessly and had an extremely successful burn and trajectory."
The test is the first of its kind at Kwajalein, where theater missile defense testing is planned for THAAD's engineering and manufacturing development phase. Normally, Patriot tests are conducted at White Sands Missile Range, NM.
A BMDO spokesman confirmed Lyles statement last week, but offered no further details. SSDC spokesman Mike Biddle declined to comment on the nature of the target. He explained that Kwajalein was used for the test because a "longer range was necessary to test this new and different target." The test, he added, "proves TMD testing is possible at [Kwajalein]." It also showcases Patriot's ability to shoot down Scuds, officials note.
Earlier versions of the missile were used with great fanfare in the Persian Gulf war, but the Army's initial claims of overwhelming success were later tempered by studies showing Patriot hit only a few of the Scuds launched by Saddam Hussein toward Saudi Arabia and Israel. Although the missiles are רelatively primitive, using 1960s technology, Hussein showed they can be effective terror weapons.
The United States has been trying in earnest to figure out how to defeat Scud missiles since the war, expecting to face them again. Scud variants are easily procured on international arms markets, and numerous countries possess them.
The Willow Dune tests are classified in detail, a source states, because potential enemies with similar missiles could alter their use of them if they know how the United States has tested them. More flights are scheduled for later this month, officials said, with others involving more sophisticated threat missiles to be conducted over the next few years.
According to government and industry officials, the United States has acquired many Scuds in order to test its own sensors and shooters against them. Some are more advanced than the one fired early this month. "There's some much newer, much better systems," the industry official says. Some of it "has been around for years" undergoing non-flight testing -- the "coup de grace," the official adds, is actually firing them.
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