US ARMY SMDC
REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. — A U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command Technical Center team’s low-cost target provided an operational assessment for the Army’s new Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor radar.
A Black Dagger short-range ballistic missile target, designed to fly a ballistic flight path and demonstrate defensive protection capability, launched from Fort Wingate, New Mexico, into White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, Dec. 6.
The operational assessment meant that active-duty Soldiers operated the radar in a real-world scenario with a live ballistic missile target.
Cain Crouch, chief of the USASMDC Tech Center’s Targets Division, said all indications are that the Black Dagger flight was nominal and exceeded performance requirements. He added that initial data showed the Black Dagger target was successfully tracked by radar and hit by an interceptor missile.
