THAAD System Shoots Down Target Over Alaska In First-of-its Kind Test

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA), the Ballistic Missile Defense System Operational Test Agency, and U.S. Army soldiers of the 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade from Fort Bliss, Texas, conducted an intercept test on July 11, 2017, of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) element of the nation’s ballistic missile defense system.

A ballistic missile target was air-launched by a U.S. Air Force C-17 over the Pacific Ocean north of Hawaii. A THAAD weapon system located at PSCA in Kodiak, Alaska, detected, tracked and intercepted the target. The test, Flight Test THAAD-18 (FTT-18), was the first-ever of the THAAD system against an incoming IRBM target, or intermediate-range ballistic missile.

The successful demonstration of THAAD against an IRBM-range missile threat bolsters the country’s defensive capability against developing missile threats in North Korea and other countries around the globe and contributes to the broader strategic deterrence architecture.