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Raytheon and the U.S. Navy has completed a capabilities test of the company’s Standard Missile-3 Block IA to evaluate the weapon’s work with a satellite sensor system to pinpoint and destroy a medium-range ballistic missile target.
Mitch Stevison, Raytheon program director for SM-3, said Thursday that this test is the first time the Navy used cues from a space sensor system to guide an SM-3 intercept.
The SM-3 launched ahead of the ship sensors’ own function to pinpoint the threat, Raytheon said.
“We can give our naval warfighters extra time to analyze and respond, by providing target data before the ship can track the threat,” said Bill Hart, vice president of space systems for Raytheon’s space and airborne systems segment.
Raytheon said its sensors were installed on Northrop Grumman‘s Space Tracking and Surveillance System-Demonstrator satellites worked to transmit threat data to the USS Lake Erie through a command, control, battle management and communications system.
