SACRAMENTO, Calif., June 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Aerojet, a GenCorp company, announced today that its booster launched the seventh successful interceptor for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency and Lockheed Martin's Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) flight test program. This was the fifth actual intercept test over the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) on Kauai, HI.
This is the first test where the target warhead separated from its booster -- an important step highlighting the difficulty of the flight test program. "In the past, we have been intercepting incoming threat representative variants which do not separate. This test reflects a more realistic Intercontinental Ballistic Missile type of target where it's more difficult to discriminate between the target and any decoys our enemies might deploy," said Aerojet's Program Manager, Charlie Meraz. "We are proud of the boost motor's 100 percent mission success and the critical role we play in our nation's defense."
Aerojet is under contract to manufacture THAAD boost motors to Lockheed Martin Corporation, the system supplier to the Missile Defense Agency.
Aerojet is a world-recognized aerospace and defense leader principally serving the missile and space propulsion, defense and armaments markets. GenCorp is a leading technology-based manufacturer of aerospace and defense products and systems with a real estate segment that includes activities related to the entitlement, sale, and leasing of the company's excess real estate assets. Additional information about Aerojet and GenCorp can be obtained by visiting the companies' Web sites at http://www.aerojet.com/ and http://www.gencorp.com/.
