The United Arab Emirate's Lockheed Martin build Terminal High Altitude Area Defense,
or THAAD system has brought down a ballistic missile.
The takedown on 17 January , is thought to be the first recorded
successful operational use, in the hands of the United Arab Emirates.
The ballistic missile that was targeted was fired by Houthi militants
during last Monday’s attack on “sensitive Emirati sites and facilities”
Viewers may note that the attack, which employed cruise missiles,
ballistic missiles and drones, killed three civilians and wounded six others.
In this video Defense Updates analyzes why the success of THAAD in real-life situation
is a big boost for the US military? Let's get started.
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The UAE was a key member of the Saudi Arabia-led coalition that entered Yemen’s
civil war in 2015 after the Houthis had overrun Yemen’s capital of Sanaa
the previous year and ousted the country’s president from power.
While the nation has largely withdrawn forces from the conflict,
it does remain involved in the war and supports local militias on the ground in Yemen.
The UAE was the first foreign customer
for the system and had signed a deal to purchase the missile defense system on 25 December 2011.
Its first units were trained in 2015 and 2016.
Terminal High Altitude Area Defense is an anti-ballistic missile system,
which is designed to shoot down short, medium, and intermediate-range ballistic missiles
in their terminal phase. The THAAD system is being designed,
built, and integrated by Lockheed Martin Space Systems acting as prime contractor.
Key subcontractors include Raytheon, Boeing, Aerojet, Honeywell, and BAE Systems to name a few.
THAAD is strictly a ballistic missile defense system and is not designed for general air
defense duties like defense against aircraft. It is considered to be one of the best when it
comes to ballistic missile defense systems having been designed from grounds up for this purpose.
THAAD is engineered to defend against ballistic missiles
in challenging scenarios like even if the rival launches a barrage of missiles
and simultaneous interception of multiple missiles is required.
The system is quick to deploy and mobile, which makes it a very flexible weapon.
An important aspect is that it is compatible with other systems like Patriot PAC-3 and is
designed to integrate into the Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) of the U.S military.
The THAAD missile is manufactured at a Lockheed Martin facility near Troy,
Alabama. The facility performs final integration, assembly, and testing of the THAAD missile.
THAAD system consists mainly of 3 components- radar, battle manager and missile launch battery.
The THAAD missiles are guided by the Raytheon Systems AN/TPY-2 ground-based radar (GBR). It is
developed and built by Raytheon at its Andover, Massachusetts Integrated Air Defense Facility.
THAAD can also be cued by military satellites such as Brilliant Eyes.
The AN/TPY-2 Surveillance Transportable Radar also called the Forward Based X-Band Transportable
(FBX-T) is a long-range, very high-altitude active electronically scanned array surveillance radar.
It possesses a range of 2,900 miles or 4,700 km. It has two modes – one to detect ballistic
missiles as they rise, and another that can guide interceptors toward a descending warhead.
Since the radar uses X-band frequency and narrow beamwidth,
it is good at isolating smaller objects, such as a warhead vs. space debris.
The radar passes information related to the threat
such as speed and trajectory to the Battle Manager.
The Battle Manager is basically the brain of the system and it extrapolates the information
received by it to predict the path of the incoming missile and directs interceptors against it.
The interceptor missile is around 6 m in length and is equipped with a single-stage
solid-fuel rocket motor with thrust vectoring. The missile has a speed of 8.24 Mach or 2.8 km/s.
The guidance system is Indium antimonide Imaging, coupled with Infra-Red Seeker Head.
It has an operational range of 200 km or around 125 miles
and a flight altitude of 150 km or 93 miles The missile has no explosives and uses 'Hit
to Kill' approach. It has a Kinetic Kill Vehicle to knock out incoming missiles.
A THAAD battery can include up to 9 transporter-erector-launchers,
each carrying 8 interceptors for immediate launch.
There are supporting equipment which includes storage and reloading systems
that will enable refill of interceptors when the first batch is used up.
On September 14, facilities of Saudi Arabia's oil company Aramco located
in the east of the country came under attack. As per reports, the raid which began at 4 AM
was carried out using 18 drones and 7 missiles.
The world’s biggest oil refinery near the city of Abqaiq and a refinery near Khurais,
where Saudi’s second-largest oil field is located were targeted.
Being facilities of very significant importance, they were protected
and Patriot PAC-2 surface-to-air missile batteries
that the U.S. sold to Saudi Arabia were stationed to intercept aircraft and missiles.
But the system failed to respond correctly and this was a major embarrassment for the US.
Hence, this THAAD interception is an important boost for the US military.