Northrop Grumman has tested a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) target by using a decommissioned LGM-118 “MX” Peacekeeper ICBM’s SR119 second stage motor, the company said last week.
The second stage motor came from the Space Force’s Rocket Systems Launch Program.
The company makes components for the LGM-35A Sentinel future ICBM, as well as ICBM targets, in Chandler, Ariz. The Missile Defense Agency uses the targets to test missile defense systems, including the Aegis ballistic missile defense system and the Ground-based Midcourse Defense System.
Northrop Grumman has delivered 27 such missile defense targets and supported 12 launches since 2011, the company said in a Jan. 8 press release. In the recent test, the target “met all performance goals for the missile defense test event, verifying the target’s enhanced capabilities and longevity to support future missile defense tests.”
“The use of digital tools optimized processes, increased operational safety, enhanced end-to-end test capability and contributed to a 25 percent reduction in field execution during Pathfinder operations before supporting the successful maiden launch,” the release said.
The SR119 provides more range, apogee and payload, and the new ICBM target “is compatible with advanced front ends to simulate sophisticated, long-range ballistic missile threats,” according to Northrop Grumman.
The Sentinel ICBM will eventually replace the Boeing-made Minuteman III as the Air Force’s silo-based, nuclear-armed ICBM. That is expected sometime in the 2030s while the Minuteman III is still commissioned.
The new missile will initially carry W87-0 warheads provided by the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, before transitioning to the W87-1 warheads being made at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
Exchange Monitor affiliate Defense Daily first published a version of this article.