The OBV was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, on January 28, 2016. Orbital ATK provides the OBV to MDA as part of an industry team led by The Boeing Company and Northrop Grumman.

“This test marks the fourteenth successful flight of our OBV rocket, supporting MDA’s ongoing testing of its GMD system,” said Rich Straka, Vice President and General Manager of Orbital ATK’s Launch Vehicles Division. “We are proud to support this vital program that defends the United States against long-range missile attacks.”

A Ground-based Interceptor (GBI) intercept was not an objective for this particular flight test. The test began when the GMD fire control system processed a weapons task plan to launch a GBI from a silo at Vandenberg Air Force Base against an air-launched Intermediate-Range Ballistic Missile target, also supplied by Orbital ATK.

Following a preliminary post-flight analysis of the data collected from the mission, MDA and the GMD team confirmed all primary OBV objectives for flight test were achieved. These included pre-launch built-in test functionality, silo launch and fly out of the OBV, accurate booster delivery of the Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV) and acquisition of telemetry data for further characterization of the OBV’s flight characteristics.

Orbital ATK’s missile defense interceptors and related target vehicle are primarily produced at the company’s engineering and manufacturing facility in Chandler, Arizona, with propulsion manufactured in Magna, Utah and its vehicle assembly and integration facilities at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California and Huntsville, Alabama.