Redstone Rocket:
A Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command employee leads his mission and team in providing low-cost targets for the Army.
Kevin Creekmore was named as SMDC/ARSTRAT’s Test Execution Support Division’s acting chief March 21.
“We develop low-cost short-range ballistic missile targets for missile defense systems to test against,” Creekmore said. “We are reutilizing excess Army rocket motors, so we save the cost of them having to be de-militarized, and repurpose them to be used as targets. It allows missile defense systems to very cost-effectively test their radars and interceptors.
“The way it helps the Army is that we are able to do additional testing, either developmental or operational testing so they have confidence their systems are working correctly. It gives the option of doing additional testing that wasn’t planned, make improvements to their systems or deploy their systems earlier as we are able to test and verify their capabilities.”
With his team, Creekmore is additionally developing solid propellant ballistic missile concepts designed to create assets that span a broader ballistic missile spectrum. These concepts are part of a suite of ballistic missiles designed to meet Army Integrated Missile Defense needs while focusing on reduced cost and increased threat representation.
“We have a small, lean team but we are all very effective and focused on accomplishing the mission,” Creekmore said. “We could always use more people but we are getting things done. We have some great young engineers, but we also have a few, very experienced people who are helping us out. We have a great team effort.”
For the past three years, Creekmore has been working as a chief engineer in the division and they have been doing testing and development with their Zombie targets. He said they are to the point where they have eight to 10 Zombie missions during the next few years and it is an exciting time moving from the development of targets to now being able to use them in a fast-paced manner.
