A LIGHTWEIGHT Exo-atmospheric Projectile (LEAP) prototype has failed for the second time in succession to intercept a theatre ballistic-missile target during US Navy tests. The latest trial involved a Rockwell-built weapon.
The LEAP, mounted on a Hughes Standard Missile, was launched on 28 March from a US Navy cruiser off the coast of North Carolina. The Scud-like target was launched from NASA's Wallops Island flight-test site in Virginia.
The Pentagon says that missile performance was normal through boost, second-stage, nose-cone ejection and third-stage separation. It says that the LEAP kinetic kill vehicle (KKV) "...appears to have observed the target just prior to KKV ejection".
The KKV, however, was ejected without power and the intercept failed. The USN will determine the cause of the malfunction, although a senior project official has already said that the LEAP's battery failed.
On 4 March, a competing LEAP made by Hughes Aircraft failed to intercept its Scud-like target during a similar exo-atmospheric intercept test. The USN says that software problems with the Standard Missile caused the test failure.
The LEAP KKV was released at the wrong point and, although it acquired and tracked the target, it was unable to reach it. Hughes is prime contractor for the theatre-missile-defence version of Standard.
Source: Flight International
