Northrop, MDA test missile system

COLORADO SPRINGS, Aug. 19 (UPI) -- Northrop Grumman and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency have completed end-to-end Ballistic Missile Defense System simulation.

The system's Performance Assessment 2009 was to analyze how the BMDS integrated radars, communication networks and interceptors performed during scenarios.

"Performance Assessment 2009 was a great success," said Karen Williams, vice president of Air and Missile Defense Systems for Northrop Grumman's Information Systems sector. "Through disciplined and rigorous integration and more than 2,500 test executions, we created a baseline configuration for 36 distinct scenarios.

"PA09 was a critical step in providing our war fighting commanders with accurate predictions of the performance of the BMDS."

The simulation represented a complete BMDS engagement -- from enemy missile launch to intercept by a BMDS kill vehicle.

The BMDS element models engaged in PA09 included the Space-Based Infrared System; Patriot Advanced Capability; Terminal High Altitude Area Defense; Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense; Ground-based Midcourse Defense; and Command, Control, Battle Management, Communications.

Northrop, the prime contractor at the Missile Defense Integration and Operations Center under a Joint National Integration Center Research and Development contract, said the simulation successfully executed and analyzed 36 scenarios including four digital ground-test reconstructions and three digital flight-test reconstructions.