Washington: The Missile Defence Agency (MDA) intercepted an incoming ballistic missile threat target in a test from Guam, according to an agency announcement. The test is the “first ballistic missile defence event executed from Guam,” the statement notes.
As the Pentagon works to build an integrated air and missile defence architecture on Guam, this is the first test of a portion of the future capability designed to protect the key strategic island from emerging and evolving threats.
“Within the context of homeland defence, a top priority for the Department of Defence, Guam is also a strategic location for sustaining and maintaining United States military presence, deterring adversaries, responding to crises, and maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region,” the statement says.
In the test, an Aegis Guam System with an AN/TPY-6 radar and Vertical Launching System fired a Standard Missile-3 Block IIA interceptor, which then took out an air-launched Medium Range Ballistic Missile target flying off the coast of Andersen Air Force Base, according to the statement.
The AN/TPY-6 radar, a new MDA system designed specifically for the Guam architecture and delivered there earlier this year, tracked the target from shortly after launch to the intercept, the statement says.
The new radar uses technology from MDA’s Long-Range Discrimination Radar positioned in Alaska at Clear Space Force Station, which will have its own test next year ahead of declaring operational capability.
“This is a tremendous group effort and provides a glimpse of how organisations within the Department of Defence have come together to defend our homeland Guam now and in the future,” Lt Gen Heath Collins, MDA director, said in the statement. “Collectively, we will use this to build upon and validate joint tracking architecture and integrated air and missile defence capabilities for Guam.”
The test data will feed into continued concept development, requirements validation and modelling for the future Guam Defence System, or GDS, the statement adds.
GDS will be built using a variety of components from the services. The US Army was assigned in 2023 to lead the acquisition and execution plan for the Guam architecture, and the service’s Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office lead – a three-star general – was appointed to stand up a joint team for seeing it through.
MDA’s role now is focused primarily on developing the means to tie all the systems together that will be part of the GDS architecture.
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