C-17 Globemaster helps test U.S. missile defense system

By Mark Diamond

AMC Public Affairs

SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. (AMCNS) --  A C-17 Globemaster III from McChord Air Force Base, Wash., recently participated in what U.S. Missile Defense Agency experts called "the successful completion" of an exercise to test America's Ballistic Missile Defense System.

The exercise specifically tested the Ground-based Midcourse Defense element and the Cobra Dane radar located at Eareckson Air Station in Shemya, Alaska.

According to MDA officials, the Ground-based Midcourse Defense element is a system designed to protect the U.S. against a limited long-range ballistic missile attack. The Cobra Dane radar has been used for missile surveillance for nearly 30 years, and was upgraded for use as a missile defense radar.

During the Sept. 26 exercise, the McChord C-17 dropped a Long Range Air Launch Target, or LRALT, over international waters about 800 miles from Shemya Island.

According to Maj. Jose Delarosa, AMC Test and Evaluation office, although the reentry vehicle used during a test is inert, it simulates a representation of an actual warhead an enemy may use to attack the United States.

He said after the LRALT was dropped from the C-17, a parachute deployed to stabilize the missile, and a first-stage rocket motor ignited, sending the missile toward its target. In this case, he said the "target" was an area of the Pacific Ocean a few hundred miles northeast of Shemya Island.

The major said once the missile was launched, the Cobra Dane radar tracked the missile’s flight, and the data was used to develop a firing solution.

MDA officials said the exercise marked the first time that data obtained from an actual missile tracked by Cobra Dane was fed into the missile defense fire control system to obtain a firing solution.

Additionally, officials said launching a missile from an aircraft provided an operationally-realistic trajectory. They said previous tests using existing missile test ranges in the Pacific were well outside the range of the Cobra Dane radar.

"The [McChord AFB] crew and maintainers did an exceptional job of supporting the drop safely and effectively," added Col. Steve Sayre, director of AMC Test and Evaluation. "[This mission] is further documentation of the huge span of missions our mobility people are doing everyday to support Air Force and Department of Defense needs."

Although the exercise is not an ordinary mission for the versatile C-17, according to Major Delarosa this wasn't the first time an air mobility aircraft was used to launch a missile target. Since the early-1970s, Air Force mobility aircraft have dropped 17 missiles. The major said in 1974 a C-5 Galaxy dropped an 85,300-pound Minuteman I missile during a similar test.

That was the first and last time the C-5 was used. From 1998 through 2004, C-130s were used to launch Short Range Air Launch Targets, called SRALTs, and in 2003, MDA began using C-17s to launch LRALTs and Medium Range Targets, or MRTs. (Some information courtesy of the Missile Defense Agency)