Payload Launch Vehicle
Payload Launch Vehicle (short PLV , dt. Payload launch carrier ) was a suborbital test rocket for the missile defense -Gefechtsköpfe the National Missile Defense .
construction
The PLV-rocket consists of the second (SR-19) and third stage (M-57a1) of disarmed Minuteman II - ICBM , identified by Lockheed Martin and the subcontractor Space Vector Corporation were converted. Instead of the Minuteman missile's original nuclear warhead, the PLV uses a kinetic warhead encased in a payload fairing. This warhead, known as the Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle , is separated from the PLV missile outside the earth's atmosphere and maneuvers itself on a collision course with the approaching warhead.
All launches took place from a launch complex consisting of a missile silo on Meck Island in the Kwajalein Atoll. From 1997 to 2002 there were a total of ten starts, two of which were failures.
A new launch rocket, the OBV rocket, was developed for the operational ground-based interceptor system .
Similar missiles, also based on the combination of the SR-19 and M-57A1 stages of the Minuteman II missile, are the Hera target display missile modified by Coleman Aerospace and the SR-19 M-57A1 modified by Orbital Sciences Corporation .
Starts
| No. | Start date | test | success |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | June 23, 1997 | IFT-1A | |
| 2 | January 15, 1998 | IFT-2 | |
| 3 | October 3, 1999 | IFT-3 | |
| 4th | January 19, 2001 | IFT-4 | |
| 5 | July 8, 2000 | IFT-5 | Partial success; Kinetic warhead is not disconnected |
| 6th | July 15, 2001 | IFT-6 | |
| 7th | 4th December 2001 | IFT-7 | |
| 8th | March 16, 2002 | IFT-8 | |
| 9 | October 15, 2002 | IFT-9 | |
| 10 | December 11, 2002 | IFT-10 | Partial success; Kinetic warhead is not disconnected |