SACRAMENTO, Calif., Jan. 28, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aerojet Rocketdyne, a subsidiary of Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:AJRD), announced today that its liquid Divert and Attitude Control System (DACS) on the Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV) successfully performed its mission-critical role in the latest non-intercept flight test of the Missile Defense Agency’s Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) program.
The vital GMD program currently is the United States’ primary defense against long-range ballistic missile attacks. During today’s test, designated CTV-02+, a Boeing-developed interceptor, carrying the Raytheon-built EKV, was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, following the launch of an air-launched target missile from a C-17 over the Pacific Ocean west of Hawaii.
CTV-02+ was the maiden flight of an EKV that had several modifications designed to improve reliability and producibility, and to enhance the performance capabilities of the EKV. “On this flight, we validated key design improvements in the divert and attitude control system, demonstrating improved performance, reliability and producibility,” said Michael Bright, Aerojet Rocketdyne vice president of Missile Defense and Strategic Systems. “The overall goal of the Missile Defense Agency is to make a more capable and reliable system, and this successful test demonstrated significant progress toward reaching that goal.”
The design, development and qualification of these design improvements were performed at Aerojet Rocketdyne’s Los Angeles site. Matt Widman, the thruster program manager, added, “This successful flight represented three years of hard work and dedication by our entire team. We are very proud of this accomplishment and look forward to many years of production of this advanced propulsion system.”
Aerojet Rocketdyne is an innovative company delivering solutions that create value for its customers in the aerospace and defense markets. The company is a world-recognized aerospace and defense leader that provides propulsion and energetics to the space, missile defense and strategic systems, tactical systems and armaments areas, in support of domestic and international markets. Additional information about Aerojet Rocketdyne can be obtained by visiting our websites at www.Rocket.com and www.AerojetRocketdyne.com.