36 AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/NOVEMBER 3/10, 2014 AviationWeek.com/awst
Amy Butler Washington
Sensory Input
Airborne UAV infrared data are key in Aegis BMD test
T
he most recent Missile Defense
Agency (MDA) trial last month
for the Aegis ballistic missile
defense system is moving the agency
closer to proving that airborne infra-
red sensors can be used to cue a bal-
listic target intercept.
The agency’s ultimate goal is to
integrate the disparate elements of a
vast ballistic missile defense system—
including satellites, airborne infrared
data and ground- and ship-based ra-
dars—into a single system of sensors
and shooters functioning seamlessly. A
product of this architecture would be
to “launch on remote” and eventually
“engage on remote.”
By launching on remote, an inter-
ceptor would be fi red at a target based
on of board data—in this case, without
the USS John Paul Jones Aegis de-
stroyer’s own SPY-1 S-band radar ac-
quiring the target. Once airborne, the
host system, the SPY-1, would acquire
the target and aid the interceptor as it
heads for a kill.
With engage-on-remote operations,
the host system’s sensor never actually
acquires the target. Instead, an inter-
cept is achieved using all of board data
piped into the interceptor by way of
the Pentagon’s Battle Command and
Control, Battle Management and Com-
munications system.
The Oct. 17 test did not include a
live interceptor; of cials simulated this
part of the engagement in a ground-
based laboratory in San Diego to save
money. However, an actual intercept
was not the primary goal. Flight Test
Other-20 (FTX-20) was designed to
conduct experiments with tracking
a medium-range ballistic missile tar-
get launched from the Pacifi c Missile
Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii.
“The Aegis lab reported achieving
launch-on-remote criteria” during the
test, MDA spokesman Rick Lehner
says. This was the fi rst time sensors
in the Airborne Infrared (ABIR) pro-
gram were used as a cue for launch-
ing on remote. Through ABIR, MDA
has been experimenting with the use
of Raytheon’s Multispectral Target-
ing System (MTS) sensors to provide
early cues of a ballistic missile launch.
These sensors are widely used against
ground targets in Afghanistan, Yemen
and elsewhere.
In a ballistic missile defense role,
the sensors can facilitate an attempt
at an early intercept because they
begin to cue interceptors almost im-
mediately after a target launch. This
gives operators a “shoot-look-shoot”
approach to taking multiple shots at a
target if one should miss. The curva-
ture of the Earth can prevent the ship-
based SPY-1 radar on Aegis ships from
acquiring a target early enough in an
engagement to allow for multiple shots
based on a ship’s own sensor data.
For FTX-20, one MQ-9 Reaper un-
manned aircraft, equipped with Ray-
theon’s MTS-B (its standard targeting
ball) orbited at 40,000 ft. in a combat
air patrol, Lehner says. Two upgraded
ground-based MTS-C sensors on the
Makaha Ridge on Kauai in Hawaii also
participated.The MTS-C incorporates multiple
electro-optical and infrared detectors,
allowing it to view the target scene in
long-, mid- and short-wave infrared,
the visible/near-infrared monochrome
and a color/low-light television mode.
The MTS-C design is optimized to ac-
quire a target at launch—when it is hot
and burns through the atmosphere—
and track it well into space as it cools.
Raytheon deferred to the MDA re-
garding comments on the sensor.
“All three of the sensors tracked the
target complex for over 9 min.,” and
they were able to provide a “stereo
track” to the ground-based lab with
enough fidelity to satisfy launch on
remote criteria, Lehner says. Using
multiple sensors from dif erent angles
provides this stereo track, which of ers
much more high-fidelity cueing for
launching on remote. The stereo track
was provided to the Aegis lab via Link
16 messages.
MDA intends to install MTS-C on a
Reaper and begin airborne trials next
year.
In the coming weeks, MDA plans
to execute Flight Test Standard Mis-
sile-26, which will pit the Aegis confi g-
ured with the 5.0 Capability Upgrade
systems against a medium-range bal-
listic missile target launched from Kau-
ai. A Raytheon SM-3 Block 1B missile,
which includes a throttleable divert
and attitude-control system as well as
two-color infrared sensor, will be used
against the target for a kill. cDEFENSEThe Missile Defense Agency plans to install the
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