The launch into the Reagan test site at Kwajalein island earlier this month, and announced Thursday by Orbital, was part of a readiness test of the U.S. Army Lower Tier Project Office PATRIOT air and missile defense system.
"We are very pleased to support the Air Force and Army with a fifth successful target launch -- it flew its planned sequence precisely as expected," Rich Straka, vice president and general manager of Orbital ATK's Launch Vehicles Division, said in a press release. "We look forward to future tests with the PTV to continue supporting the readiness of the nation's PATRIOT system."
The Janus target and its re-entry vehicle took Orbital ATK 19 months to develop and relied heavily on flight-proven designs from other Orbital ATK launch programs, the company said.
Orbital ATK produces target vehicles for the Navy's Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense system, the Missile Defense Agency's Ground-based Midcourse Defense system, and the U.S. Army's THAAD system, as well as for the Patriot system.
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