paperboy@afnews.af.mil (Incoming news) (06/25/91)
From: Incoming news <paperboy@afnews.af.mil>
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<<>> Assistant Secretary Of Defense <<>>
<<>> Public Affairs June 1991 <<>>
<<>> Pentagon, Washington DC Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat <<>>
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<<>> DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE NEWS 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 <<>>
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<<>> MONDAY, JUNE 24, 1991 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 <<>>
<<>> 30 <<>>
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<<>> Department of Defense News Editor: Mr. Frank Falatko <<>>
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* SDIO AIRBORNE SUVEILLANCE TEST
====================================================================
SDIO AIRBORNE SUVEILLANCE TEST
The Strategic Defense Initiative Organization's (SDIO) Airborne Surveil-
lance Testbed (AST) conducted the first real-time discrimination of multiple
reentry objects within the atmosphere on June 20 at the U.S. Army Kwajalein
Atoll in the central Pacific.
The AST successfully acquired a Minuteman Intercontinental Ballistic
Missile target complex consisting of a simulated reentry vehicle and a variety
of penetration aids. During the seven hour treaty compliant mission, the AST
objective was to collect heat intensities and angular measurements of the
targets. This allowed for a demonstration of real-time functions of track and
discrimination and handover of targets complex data to a command center on the
ground. AST accomplished all primary mission objectives.
The AST is managed by the U.S. Army Strategic Defense Command for SDIO.
AST is a modified Boeing 767 aircraft with a cupola which houses a sophisti-
cated, long-wave infrared sensor. Also on board is a data processor capable of
processing 15 billion operations per second which interprets the data acquired
by the sensor in real-time and allows discrimination between actual reentry
vehicles and decoys as they travel through the atmosphere. The sensor views
through an open window in the cupola during the aircraft's missions at alti-
tudes of over 40,000 feet.
The data obtained from this mission is critical to continued SDI technol-
ogy development and benefits a wide spectrum of SDI programs.
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