Lockheed Martin Unveils Groundbreaking Trials for the PAC-3 MSE Defense System
Lockheed Martin showcased recent enhancements to its PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) interceptor during aerial evaluations carried out at White Sands Missile Range on August 9.
During these evaluations, a PAC-3 MSE successfully engaged a tactical ballistic missile target, confirming upgrades to missile and launcher software as well as hardware components. These advancements, designed to ensure the future capabilities of the PAC-3 MSE interceptor align with the evolving threats of today and tomorrow, will be integrated into production over the forthcoming year, the company disclosed on Monday.
In another development, two PAC-3 Cost Reduction Initiative (CRI) missiles successfully neutralized their tactical ballistic missile targets, aiding the U.S. Army’s Field Surveillance Program (FSP) that verifies the dependability and preparedness of deployed PAC-3 missiles. These tests represented the 17th and 18th successful PAC-3 CRI FSP intercepts, reaffirming the missile’s proficiency in detecting, tracking, and neutralizing threats while fulfilling operational reliability standards. The inaugural PAC-3 MSE FSP flight evaluation is slated for later this year.
PAC-3 missiles thwart incoming threats through direct body-to-body engagement, imparting significantly greater kinetic energy upon the target compared to traditional blast-fragmentation kill strategies.
