Northrop Grumman, HUNTSVILLE, Ala., FAIR LAKES, Va. and BOULDER, Colo.: Last month, Northrop Grumman Corporation successfully demonstrated two key battle management capabilities for the new Kinetic Energy Interceptors (KEI) missile-defense program, ahead of schedule.
KEI is a mobile, land-based missile-defense system that, when deployed, will be able to destroy a hostile threat during its boost and ascent phase of flight. The team managing the KEI battle management portion of the program is in Huntsville, Ala.
The first test demonstrated the ability of the KEI command and control, battle management and communications (C2BMC) system's permanent U.S. site to process data from classified sensors, downgrade the classification of that data, and distribute it to a KEI battery in the field. This permanent C2BMC system will be housed in the Joint National Integration Center at Schriever Air Force Base, Colo. and will be known as the Continental U.S. KEI (CKEI) — providing a vital link for key national sensor data to the field — when the overall KEI system becomes operational.
During this test, the CKEI demonstrated the ability to process live data from satellite sources and feed that data into the mobile C2BMC battery in the field to substantially improve the threat-trajectory prediction and enhance the system's ability to intercept a hostile threat.
In a separate event, Northrop Grumman took an initial step in testing the mobile C2BMC system (housed in a 42-foot trailer that deploys to the field as part of the KEI battery) when the system tracked a live launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. During the test, the C2BMC system software (located in Boulder, Colo.) successfully identified the threat, formulated a track and committed on an engagement of the target.
These events are seen as the initial step in a series of planned demonstrations over the next two years to prove the overall KEI system's ability to perform its mission.
