The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) radar built by Raytheon performed successfully in the latest integrated THAAD flight test. The test, conducted by the Missile Defense Agency and Lockheed Martin, THAAD prime contractor and system integrator, occurred at the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Hawaii June 29, 2010.

The test marks the seventh successful intercept of a threat-representative target. The THAAD radar, also known as the AN/TPY-2 mobile X-band radar, achieved all test objectives: acquiring the target, discriminating the lethal object, providing track and discrimination data to the fire control, and communicating with the in-flight THAAD interceptor.

The fire control software, jointly developed by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, also performed successfully, engaging the target and initializing the launch sequence.

"This test again demonstrates the exceptional performance of Raytheon's AN/TPY-2 radar as the critical sensor for the THAAD Weapon System," said Karen Kalil-Brown, vice president, National and Theater Security Programs for Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems.

The THAAD radar played a critical role in acquiring, tracking and discriminating the lethal object in support of the low endo-atmospheric (inside the earth's atmosphere) intercept. The test represents another successful demonstration of the performance of the fully integrated THAAD system's radar, launcher, interceptor and fire control in its tactical configuration.

The AN/TPY-2 is a phased array, capable of search, threat detection, classification, discrimination and precision tracking at extremely long ranges.

THAAD is a key element of the Ballistic Missile Defense System, providing deployable ground-based missile defense components that deepen, extend and complement the system to defeat ballistic missiles of short to intermediate range. THAAD's combination of high-altitude, long-range capability and hit-to-kill lethality enables it to effectively negate the effects of weapons of mass destruction over a wide area.