Northrop Grumman Launches Black Dagger Target to Test New Patriot Missile System Sensor

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Northrop Grumman Corporation launched a Zombie target vehicle variation, known as “Black Dagger,” from Fort Wingate to White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, for the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command’s (USASMDC) LTZ-3 test mission. Zombie targets get their name because they bring “new life” to demilitarized solid rocket motors by repurposing them to create threat-representative tactical ballistic missiles.

The successful test demonstrated the capabilities of the Integrated Battle Command System (IBCS), the Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor and Patriot Advanced Capability-3 air defense systems.

• Zombie targets repurpose demilitarized solid rocket motors to simulate adversary tactical ballistic missiles while driving affordability and cutting development time for advanced missile defense testing.
• Northrop Grumman, in partnership with Teledyne Brown Engineering and Peraton, Inc., have developed, delivered and successfully launched nine Zombie targets as intercept test vehicles for the USASMDC’s Tactical Range Air Defense Missile (TACRAM) contract.
• Northrop Grumman produces six Zombie configurations that offer varying capabilities and emulate customer-specified threats, including the “Black Dagger” configuration tested.

Expert:

Robin Heard, director, targets, Northrop Grumman: “Producing low-cost, high-fidelity target vehicles is a critical step toward fielding advanced systems to protect the nation and its allies from ballistic missile attacks. This program highlights the partnership between industry and USASMDC to create cost-effective solutions without sacrificing reliability and performance.”

Details:

Zombie targets are a suite of low-cost tactical ballistic missile targets which test and verify U.S. missile defense systems.

The TACRAM program reduces the cost of Army missile defense programs’ test and evaluation efforts by creating low-cost, threat-representative target solutions. Northrop Grumman will continue partnering to build and launch Zombie targets to test advanced missile defense systems under the TACRAM 2 contract, awarded earlier this year and extending to 2028.

Northrop Grumman is a leading provider of threat-representative target vehicles used in the test and verification of the nation’s missile defense systems. The company is leading the industry in advanced avionics, adaptable vehicle enhancement kits and advanced payloads, combining with its technology expertise in solid rocket motors, to rapidly configure target vehicles replicating sophisticated adversary threats. 

IBCS, Northrop Grumman’s revolutionary mission command fire control system tested during the demonstration, unifies current and future systems regardless of source, service or domain. Through its network enabled, modular, open and scalable architecture, IBCS gives warfighters capabilities they never had before by fusing sensor data for a single actionable picture of the full battlespace. This ready-now capability gives warfighters more time to make decisions on how best to defeat threats and is a foundational element for enabling joint and coalition, multi-domain operations. IBCS is in production and planned for worldwide deployment, and in Defense of Guam as part of the U.S. Army program of record for integrated air and missile defense modernization.