Raytheon researchers will test a new interceptor missile’s seeker -– fired from a fighter -- against a boosting ballistic missile in late summer at the White Sands Missile Range, N.M. To cut development costs, it will be a derivative of the AIM-120 AMRAAM.
Because 75% of the missile's components are already in production, company officials predict they could field a weapon for about $1 million a missile in about four years. The demonstration project is to produce 20 production representative missiles for further testing.
So far the experiment is called the Network Centric Airborne Defense Element (NCADE) because it can pull real-time targeting information from many sources including the Defense Support Program early warning satellite constellation that provided information of Iraqi scud missile launches against Saudi Arabia and Israel during the 1991 Persian Gulf conflict.
Researchers have taken the infrared sensor from the company’s AIM-9X short-range air-to-air missile and integrated it with the AIM-120 AMRAAM missile body and solid fuel rocket motor as a first stage.
A new liquid fuel second stage –- the advanced hydroxyl ammonium nitrate (HAN) thruster –- will give the as yet unnamed missile an extra 25-plus seconds of endurance at more than 150 lb. of thrust, says Mike Booen, Vice President of Advanced Missile Defense & Directed Energy Weapons for Raytheon Missile Systems. A variable direction exhaust nozzle will allow rapid maneuvering of the missile at exoatmospheric altitudes of 100,000 ft. or more. Read the May 21st issue of Aviation Week & Space Technology for more details.
--David Fulghum
Stupid question... why not use the stock slammer seeker? Does IR simply outrange AR at suborbital altitudes? Or is it used to prevent released stages from acting as decoys?
Posted by: Big D | May 11, 2007 at 01:16 AM
They need IR because they're looking at a big exhaust plume through most of the flight. AMRAAM radar doesn't have the necessary range.
Posted by: dave fulghum | May 11, 2007 at 11:17 AM