Recently, Lockheed Martin and the Missile Defense Agency successfully conducted an integrated Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) flight test using the Raytheon Company-built THAAD radar at the Pacific Missile Range Facility located in Hawaii.
Also termed as the AN/TPY-2 mobile X-band radar, the THAAD radar attained all its test objectives: acquire the target, discriminate the lethal object, provide track and discrimination information to the fire control as well as communicate with the THAAD interceptor.
Both Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Company jointly developed the fire control software which also performed successfully. The test signifies a successful display of the functioning of the completely integrated THAAD system’s launcher, interceptor fire control and radar in its strategic configuration.
The AN/TPY-2 is an array that can search, detect threats, classify, discriminate and accurately track even at very long ranges. THAAD is a crucial part of the Ballistic Missile Defense System, offering deployable missile defense components that are ground based which extend, complement and deepen the system in defeating ballistic missiles of intermediate to short range.