The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization wants to conduct the next comprehensive ground exercise for the National Missile Defense system early next year, according to the NMD program office. The event will be the first major NMD ground test in over a year and the first such evaluation of the system since President Clinton's recent decision not to deploy the initial NMD architecture in 2005.

The multi-week exercise, designated integrated ground test-6 (IGT-6), will occur at a new facility that BMDO has set up to relieve the heavy burden on the existing test site, the joint program office says.

IGT-6 is set to begin in February 2001 at the Integrated System Test Capability-2 facility, a new site located at the Army Space and Missile Defense Command's Advanced Research Center in Huntsville, Alabama the JPO says. Previous ground exercises have taken place at the first ISTC site, also at the ARC.

Integrated flight test-6 (IFT-6), the next NMD intercept attempt, is also scheduled for around that time, officials say.

The integrated ground tests involve the use of a combination of hardware-in-the-loop and software-in-the-loop models to test the NMD system in an operational environment. They allow officials to assess the state of NMD integration efforts by representing each system element with computers called "nodes" that use the most advanced software and processors available for each component at the time of the test. The nodes are interconnected and fed common simulated threat and scenario data. The exercises are conducted in real time.

The tests are designed to validate the functionality of element-to-element interfaces and mitigate risk to NMD intercept tests. Although flight tests are the highest-visibility events, the ground test activities are crucial to the NMD program because they, along with simulations, provide the vast majority of information needed for milestone decisions.

According to a written statement the JPO provided to Inside Missile Defense, the IGT-6 test objectives are geared toward demonstrating the NMD system's ability to discriminate between warheads and decoys; plan integrated engagements; and perform against capability-1 threats -- i.e. missiles with unsophisticated countermeasures.

Additionally, the exercise will collect data to support a Defense Acquisition Board milestone review of the NMD program next year and will anchor the next version -- build five -- of the primary NMD simulation system, called LIDS, the JPO says. LIDS, developed by NMD lead system integrator Boeing, stands for LSI Integration Distributed Simulation.

IGT-6 will test the 13 engagement scenarios that have been established for the capability-1 system in the NMD requirements documentation, the JPD states.

Outside observers say those 13 scenarios involve limited attacks emanating from three geographic regions: Libya, the Middle East and North Korea, as well as accidental or unauthorized launches from Russia or China.

The NMD system, as currently envisioned, consists of space-based sensors, ground-based radars, a battle management command, control and communications element and ground-based interceptors. The Clinton administration had planned to base the system's interceptor site in Alaska as well as its primary X-band engagement radar. The system is meant to defend all 50 states against a limited long-range ballistic missile attack from a nation like North Korea, Iran or Iraq. It would also have a contingency capability against the accidental or unauthorized launch of small numbers of missiles from a major nuclear power like Russia.

The president announced Sept. 1 he would not authorize the construction of the system's X-band radar, one of the long-lead items for a 2005 initial operational capability. Instead, he opted to continue the system's development and defer to his successor the decision on fielding the system (IMD, Sept. 6, p1). His action essentially killed any chance that the system could be ready in 2005 and makes an operational date in 2006 or 2007 more likely, officials say.

NMD officials say they continue to move ahead with the program with business as usual, except they are no longer aiming at a 2005 fielding date. The next president, Vice President Al Gore or Texas Governor George W. Bush, may modify the currently planned architecture.

Boeing oversees the NMD development and integration activities under a 1998 contract.

The initial NMD integrated ground test, IGT-1A, was conducted in April 1998.

BMDO already has IGT nodes for the NMD system's BMC3, Ground-Based Radar prototype -- the X-band radar, Upgraded Early Warning Radar, In-Flight Interceptor Communications System, Defense Support Program satellites, Space-Based Infrared System satellites and Ground-Based Interceptor.

Like all other IGTs to date, IGT-6 will build upon the previous ground tests by incorporating more operationally realistic and less prototypical versions of software and processors in each node. The JPO says IGT-6 will build upon the previous ground exercise, IFT-5, in the following ways:

• "A SBIRS system program office tape will replace a test driver.

• "The Upgraded Early Warning Radar (UEWR) enhancement will incorporate the UEWR Test Article (UTA) to replace the UEWR representative.

• "The X-Band Radar (XBR) will use Ground Based Radar (GBR) XBR-like software.

• "The Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI) will add one additional real-time simulation (RTSim), 20 medium fidelity simulations (MFSims), a Command Launch Equipment (CLE) simulation build and a booster model with C1 performance parameters (part of the CLESim).

• "The battle management, command, control, and communications (BMC3) element will use upgraded In-Flight Interceptor Communication System (IFICS) and BMC2 increment build one (BI-1) to replace capability increment-3a software.

• "An element interface system (EIS) model will replace the BMC3 Element Support Center (BESC) Integration Test and Evaluation (BITE)-Lite unit."