Successful T.H.A.A.D. Test Underscores Feasibility, Need for Rapid Deployment of Missile Defenses

(Washington, D.C.): At 7:19 EDT this morning, a Theater High-Altitude Area Defense
(THAAD) interceptor rocket under development by Lockheed Martin Corporation hit and
destroyed a simulated ballistic missile in flight over the Pentagon’s White Sands missile test
range in New Mexico. Today’s test demonstrates anew that the much-touted technical
challenge of “hitting a bullet with a bullet” — the objective of an effective hit-to-kill missile
defense system — is eminently achievable.

This intercept comes on the heels of a recent, successful flight demonstration of the Patriot
Advanced Capability (PAC-3) system’s hit-to-kill missile defense technology. ¹ It also rebuts
the myriad critics who argued that the much-maligned THAAD program ought to be
shut-down
following its previous test failures — failures that were apparently caused by quality control (QC)
problems, not immutable laws of physics. As the Center for Security Policy has long argued, the
correct response to these difficulties is to intensify the test program as part of a
retooling of the
THAAD team’s management and enhancement of its QC efforts. ²

The question now becomes: Can we now rapidly bring this technology to the point
where it
can be widely deployed — the need for such a capability having been painfully
established eight
years ago when Iraqi Scuds killed American and allied personnel? The answer
must be in the
affirmative, as must be the decision to proceed aggressively with the development,
testing and
deployment of complementary systems, notably, modifications of the Navy’s AEGIS fleet
defense system, so as to provide more comprehensive protection for U.S. troops and allies abroad
and for the American homeland.

Specifically, today’s successful intercept should clear the decks for:

• The rapid production and fielding of a User Operational Evaluation System
  (UOES) —
  an interim deployment capability involving forty missiles and associated launchers, radar and
  battle-management equipment. The UOES system would permit two THAAD batteries to be
  fitted out by the year 2000.

• Congress to pay particular attention to synergies that exist between the THAAD program
  and
  the AEGIS Option (starting with the Navy Theater Wide missile defense system), including
  using the THAAD program’s formidable radar system and perhaps other components to
  optimize the missile defense capabilities of Navy platforms deployed around the
  world. ³

• Missile intercept tests as soon as possible against longer-range
  missiles. Today’s test used
  a Hera test vehicle to imitate a Scud missile similar to those fired by Iraq during the 1991 Gulf
  War. The Congress should legislate requirements to test missile defenses against targets
  designed to simulate the flight of medium-range missiles such as North Korea’s Taepo Dong I
  or Iran’s Shahab-3.

The Bottom Line

The Nation owes a tremendous debt of gratitude to those responsible for permitting and
accomplishing the perfection of the THAAD missile defense system. With this success, there is
now every reason to believe that — if the THAAD program is provided with the resources, the
programmatic priority and policy latitude it needs in this critical phase of its development — it
will not only perform as advertised in the future, but provide invaluable assistance to other,
critically important hit-to-kill anti-missile efforts.

¹ On 15 March, the PAC-3 intercepted and destroyed an incoming
tactical ballistic missile
target.

² See the Center’s Decision Briefs entitled
Only the Clinton Team Could Respond to North
Korean, Other Emerging Missile Threats by Canceling Near-Term T.H.A.A.D.
(No. 98-D 159,
3 September 1998) and Hit or Miss Tomorrow, T.H.A.A.D. Must Go
Forward (No. 98-D 81, 11
May 1998).

³For more on the benefits of such program integration, see the
Heritage Foundation’s new study
entitled “Defending America: A Plan to Meet the Urgent Missile
Threat,” which can be
accessed via the World Wide Web at the following address: www.heritage.org.