The Missile Defense Agency says that it plans to conduct four tests of its ground-based missile defense system this year, according to the Fairbanks (AK) Daily News-Miner. The agency would not disclose specific dates, but a spokesman did tell the paper that the agency would conduct three tests (not sequential) using Alaska’s Kodiak Island as the launch point for a target missile. There will be no interceptor missile fired for those three; they are data gathering opportunities only, says MDA. No. 2 on the dance program, however, will feature the first interceptor launch from Vandenberg AFB, Calif.
The Pentagon’s new counter-drone task force will play a direct role in arming Airmen with new weapons to defend Air Force agile combat employment, or ACE, air bases in austere locations against enemy drone attacks, the director of Joint Interagency Task Force 401 said Oct. 14.
