13 Aug 10. Aerojet’s Supersonic Sea-Skimming Target (SSST) ramjet propulsion system successfully completed the first flight test of the Coyote High Diver variant supersonic target mission. Orbital
Sciences Corporation (Orbital) developed the target vehicle and uses Aerojet’s solid-fueled Variable Flow Ducted Rocket (VFDR) propulsion engine. Orbital upgraded the original SSST configuration with guidance software modifications that enable the vehicle to operate at altitudes up to 50,000 feet. During the naval test at San Nicolas Island, Calif., the Coyote High Diver vehicle was rail-launched from the ground and boosted by a solid rocket motor to ramjet-takeover speed. Under ramjet-power, the system ascended subsequently to an altitude of 35,000 feet and reached a cruise speed of approximately Mach 3.3. At the end of its 110 nautical-mile-long flight, the vehicle executed a planned 40-degree unpowered dive to its objective point near the ocean’s surface. This flight mission was crucial in validating the vehicle’s suitability for future high-altitude naval threat simulations and anti-missile response system tests.

17 Aug 10. The Royal Navy’s newest air defence missile, designed to arm the Navy’s new fleet of Type 45 destroyers, has successfully completed its toughest test yet during trials in the Mediterranean. Sea Viper, the groundbreaking missile system previously called PAAMS until it was renamed by the Royal Navy, will set new standards in air defence. And, during recent trials in the Mediterranean, the system achieved a direct hit in a salvo (multiple missiles) firing against a manoeuvrable sea-skimming target travelling at hundreds of miles an hour. Sea Viper is capable of defending the Type 45 and ships in its company against multiple attacks from the most sophisticated enemy aircraft or missiles approaching from any direction and at supersonic speeds. It can even engage more than ten targets simultaneously – a huge leap in capability for the Royal Navy. (Source: ASD Network)

13 Aug 10. India’s new nuclear missile, the Agni II, will be tested in September from Wheeler Island, off the Orissa coast in India. The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)-developed Agni II has two stages, powered by solid propellants. The missile is capable of carrying nuclear warheads, which are protected from intense heat when the missile re-enters the atmosphere using re-entry technology developed by the DRDO.
The speed of the missile ranges between 2,750km and 3,000km and fills the gap between the Agni II (2,500km) and Agni III (3,500 km) missiles.
Agni I is a single-stage missile that can hit enemy targets from a distance of 700km. (Source: army-technology.com)

18 Aug 10. The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and Northrop Grumman Corporation have finalized verification and validation of the Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) Performance Assessment 2009 (PA09). PA09 is an end-to-end system-level simulation conducted to analyze how the BMDS integrated radars, communication networks and interceptors perform during scenarios. Northrop Grumman, as the prime contractor at the Missile Defense Integration and Operations Center (MDIOC) under the Joint National Integration Center Research and Development Contract, led the team that integrated and executed the unprecedented simulation. The simulation represented a complete BMDS engagement from enemy missile launch to intercept by a BMDS kill vehicle.
“Performance Assessment 2009 was a great success,” said Karen Williams, vice president of Air and Missile Defense Systems for Northrop Grumman’s Information Systems sector. “Through disciplined and rigorous integration and more than 2,500 test executions, we created a baseline configuration for 36 distinct scenarios.
“PA09 was a critical step in providing our war fighting commanders with accurate predictions of the performance of the BMDS,” added Williams.
Because the potential combinations of BMDS configurations, int