Air Force destroys surrogate cruise missile in hypervelocity projectile test

Sept. 15 (UPI) -- The Pentagon on Tuesday released video showing the rapid detection and destruction of surrogate Russian cruise missiles as part of a test of a new weapons system.

The Air Force ran its second test of the Advanced Battle Management System earlier this month. The system is meant to streamline the collection, analysis and sharing of information so that joint forces can make decisions faster in the battlefield.

The test included detecting and destroying the surrogate cruise missile using artificial intelligence-driven software systems that might help commanders make decisions about battle with China or Russia.

According to Will Roper, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics, a novel hypervelocity projectile successfully shot down one of the surrogate cruise missiles used in the test.

"Future battlefields will be characterized by information saturation. One of the key objectives of this onramp was to present a dizzying array of information for participants to synthesize, just like they would see in a real operation," Roper said.

The weeklong test included 70 industry teams, 65 government teams from every branch of the military including the Coast Guard, 35 military platforms and took place at 30 geographic locations and four national test ranges.

The first test of the ABMS was held in December.

The new system was the top modernization priority for the Air Force and has a budget of $3.3 billion over five years.

It's intended to served as the backbone of a network-centric approach in partnership with all services across the DoD.