Hawaii, a popular vacation destination, is also a proving grounds for the latest defenserelated technologies. This past June, the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) radar was put through its paces at Hawaii's Pacifi c Missile Range Facility in a test conducted by the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and Lockheed Martin, the platform's prime contractor. The THAAD radar, developed by Raytheon Co., is also known as the AN/TPY-2 mobile X-band radar. The AN/TPY-2 is a phasedarray, solid-state radar system. It is capable of search, threat detection, classifi cation, discrimination, and precision tracking at long ranges.
The THAAD system achieved all test objectives: acquiring the target, discriminating the lethal object, providing track and discrimination data to the fi re control, and communicating with the in-flight THAAD interceptor. The fi re control software, jointly developed by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, also performed successfully, engaging the target and initializing the launch sequence. The test marks the seventh successful intercept of a threat-representative target.
Karen Kalil-Brown, Vice President, National & Theater Security Programs for Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems, remarked that "This test again demonstrates the exceptional performance of Raytheon's AN/ TPY-2 radar as the critical sensor for the THAAD Weapon System." The THAAD radar played a critical role in acquiring, tracking, and discriminating the lethal object in support of the low endo-atmospheric (inside the earth's atmosphere) intercept. The test represents another successful demonstration of the performance of the fully integrated THAAD system's radar, launcher, interceptor and fi re control in its tactical confi guration. THAAD is a key element of the Ballistic Missile Defense System. THAAD's combination of high-altitude, long-range capability and hit-to-kill lethality enables it to effectively negate the effects of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) over a wide area.