Missile Defense Agency officials said they successfully completed a flight test of a short-range air-launched target missile over the Pacific Ocean about 500 miles off the coast of southern California. A C-17 deployed the missile from its rear via a parachute assembly, validating a redesigned deployment mechanism meant to correct problems identified during previous tests, according to the agency’s release. After SRALT left the aircraft, its rocket motor ignited and sent the missile on its planned over-water trajectory. Missile defense sensors based in California tracked the missile during the July 8 test, as did the MDA’s two Space Tracking Surveillance System demonstration satellites. “This was the first demonstration of stereo acquisition and track handover of a short-range target by the STSS,” according to the release. The agency intends to use SRALT in tracking and shootdown tests of the nation’s ballistic missile defense system.
A new Navy missile could fill a range gap that the U.S. Air Force needs for its fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-generation fighters. The Navy’s portfolio acquisition executive for munitions posted information on the AIM-424 Long Range Air-to-Air Missile online on Aug. 22, the same day it unveiled the project at…