Army SMDC Provides Affordable Target for Missile Defense System Testing

A low-cost missile target from a U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command Technical Center team was launched from White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, on July 7 to test the Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor system. The Army said Economical Target-2 is a spin-stabilized, unguided target that serves as a tactical ballistic missile representative.

While ET-2 is a repurposed demilitarized Army motor similar to the SMDC’s Zombie missile target, ET-2 does not have Zombie’s accuracy because it is designed for situations where target accuracy is not a major priority, Army .mil reported.

ET-2’s development began in early 2020 to upgrade ET-1 missile targets. It is built to be deployed from a transportable launcher to provide users with launch site flexibility. Justin Novak, ET-2 assistant test director of the Technical Center’s Targets Test Directorate, said the target vehicle is equipped with excess and obsolete rocket hardware to provide an affordable product for testing missile defense systems.