The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) yesterday announced that it had successfully conducted an intercept test of the Aegis SM-3 Block IB interceptor.  In the test, labeled FTM-21, two SM-3 Block IB interceptors  were salvo launched  (that is, sequentially launched against a single target) from the Aegis cruiser Lake Erie, equipped with the Aegis 4.0.2 system, at a short-range ballistic missile target with a separating warhead.  The first of the two interceptors reportedly hit and destroyed the target warhead.

Figure 1.  Illustration of FTM-21 (made prior to the test).  Image source: MDA

This was the first salvo test using two SM-3 interceptors.  In MDA’s previous intercept test, FTO-01 held on September 10, 2013, an SM-3 Block IA and a THAAD interceptor were salvo fired at a medium-range target.  In both tests, the first interceptor reportedly hit the target, leaving nothing for the second missile to intercept.

According to the MDA, in FTM-21 “…the target complex was the most difficult engaged to date.”  The target complex likely consists of at least the target warhead, the rocket booster, and debris associated with the warhead deployment.  Whether any Aegis target complex has included other objects deliberately released (such as decoys) has not been publicly revealed.

This was the fourth successful intercept attempt of the Block IB interceptor, following an initial failed intercept attempt on September 1, 2011.  The next Aegis test, FTM-22, is scheduled for later this year.  If this test, of an SM-3 Block IB interceptor against a medium-range target, is successful, full rate production of the SM-3 Block IB could begin.

Yesterday the MDA announced the successful completion of test FTO-01.  As illustrated in Figure 1 below (made before the test), in this test, conducted on and near Kwajalein Atoll,  two medium-range ballistic missile targets were intercepted, one by an Aegis SM-3 Block 1A interceptor launched from an Aegis  cruiser and the other by a land-based THAAD interceptor.   In both intercepts, cuing from a TPY-2 X-band radar operating in its forward-based mode was used.  The MDA News Release described the test as an “operational” test that demonstrated a “layered defense architecture.”  The “layered defense architecture” here refers to the launch of a second THAAD interceptor that would have attempted to intercept the target hit by the SM-3 if the SM-3 had failed to destroy the target.  Since the SM-3 hit its target, this second THAAD interceptor did not attempt an intercept, although it likely collected some interesting data on the intercept scene.  

Figure 1.  The plan for test FTO-01.  From slide 17 of an August 14, 2013 briefing by MDA Director Vice Admiral James Syring, available at: https://mostlymissiledefense.com/2013/09/10/mda-overview-briefings-september-10-2013/.

It is interesting to compare this test to the previous, arguably even more complex, combined test, FTI-01, held in October 2012.  This test is shown in Figure 2 below (from after the test).  In this test, five interceptors (two SM-3 Block IA, one THAAD, and two Patriot) attempted to intercept five ballistic missile or aircraft targets in one-on-one engagements (all apparently occurring within a short period of time.)

Figure 2.  Geometry of test FTI-01.  From briefing by MDA Director Vice Admiral James Syring, February 22, 2013.  Available at: https://mostlymissiledefense.com/2013/09/10/mda-overview-briefings-september-10-2013/.

Unlike yesterday’s test, which was called an operational test, FTI-01 was described as a combined developmental-operational test (precisely why it was not a fully operational test is unclear to me).  The results of FTI-01 are shown in Figure 3 below.

Figure 3.  Results of FTI-01 (October 2012).  From briefing by MDA Director Vice Admiral James Syring, February 22, 2013.  Available at: https://mostlymissiledefense.com/2013/09/10/mda-overview-briefings-september-10-2013/.

As shown in Figure 3, four of the five intercept attempts in FTI-01 succeeded (in the fifth, although shown on the slide as “not confirmed,” the intercept attempt failed).  The failed intercept in this test was the attempted intercept of a short-range ballistic missile by an Aegis SM-3 Block IA interceptor (as far as I know, the cause of this failure has not yet been publicly revealed – the MDA fact sheet on testing  (updated yesterday) still lists the failure as “pending investigation”).  It would have been interesting if this test had involved a THAAD backing up an SM-3 as was done for the first time in yesterday’s test – in the case  of TFI-01 the THAAD missile would have had a target to attempt to intercept.