Alliant Techsystems, the nation’s leading solid rocket motor producer, provided the third-stage rocket motor (TSRM) and Solid Divert and Attitude Control System (SDACS) for the successful intercept test flight of Raytheon Company’s (NYSE: RTN – News) Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) with the Aegis BMD Weapon System. The SM-3 was launched from the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) equipped cruiser, USS Lake Erie. The successful test destroyed a separating ballistic missile target’s re-entry vehicle outside the earth’s atmosphere during a Missile Defense Agency / Aegis BMD Program flight test over the Pacific Ocean.
This was the sixth successful intercept for Aegis BMD using ATK’s TSRM and SDACS propulsion technology for missile defense missions. After the SM-3 was launched from an Aegis BMD cruiser, the advanced TSRM narrowed the intercept envelope before handing off terminal guidance to the SDACS, which performed a series of maneuvers to keep the SM-3 on target all the way to intercept. The target missile was launched from the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai, Hawaii.
ATK is a $3.1 billion advanced weapon and space systems company employing approximately 14,500 people in 23 states. News and information can be found on the Internet at http://www.atk.com .
Raytheon Company, with 2004 sales of $20.2 billion, is an industry leader in defense and government electronics, space, information technology, technical services, and business and special mission aircraft. With headquarters in Waltham, Mass., Raytheon employs 80,000 people worldwide.
