THAAD Terminal High Altitude Area air Defense Missile.

Technical Data

• Missile

  The THAAD missile is 6.17 m in length and is equipped with a single-stage solid-fuel rocket motor with thrust vectoring. The rocket motor is supplied by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne. The launch weight is 900 kg. The target object data and the predicted intercept point are downloaded to the missile prior to launch. The updated target and intercept data are also transmitted to the missile in flight. The THAAD missile can destroy aerial targets at ranges from 150 to 200 km and can reach a maximum altitude of 150 km. Unlike other missile defense systems, THAAD can intercept targets within (endoatmospheric) and outside (exoatmospheric) the atmosphere.

• Main Features

  • Defends against short-, medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles
  • Unique endo- and exo-atmospheric intercept capability
  • Dedicated to BMD missions – always optimally positioned to counter the prevailing threat
  • Interoperable with other Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) systems
  • High lethality with proven hit-to-kill
  • High firepower and sustainability for resistance to mass attack
  • High single-shot kill probability provides cost-effectiveness

• Launcher Vehicle

  THAAD launcher unit vehicle is a modified Oshkosh Truck Corporation Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck with Load Handling System (HEMTT-LHS). The 12m-long by 3.25m-wide launch vehicle carries eight missile launch containers. While on the launcher, lead-acid batteries provide the primary power. The batteries are recharged with a low-noise generator.

• Battery Components

  A THAAD battery consists of four main components including up to 9 mobile launcher vehicles with eight missiles ready to fire, one AN/TPY-2 surveillance X-band radar used to search, track, and discriminate objects and provides data to the interceptor and fire control and command vehicle that links THAAD components together, and plans and executes intercept solutions.
  
  The THAAD Radar is an X-Band Radar developed and built by Raytheon at its Andover, Massachusetts Integrated Air Defense Facility. It is the world's largest ground/air-transportable X-Band radar. The THAAD Radar and a variant developed as a forward sensor for ICBM missile defense, the "Forward-Based X-Band - Transportable (FBX-T)" radar were assigned a common designator, AN/TPY-2, in late 2006/early 2007. The AN/TPY-2 radar uses a 9.2m² aperture full field of view antenna phased array operating at I and J bands (X-band) and contains 25,344 solid-state microwave transmit and receive modules. The radar has the capability to acquire missile threats at ranges up to 1,000km.
  
  The THAAD Fire Control and Communications (TFCC) component oversees battery operations and relays fire control information to other elements of the joint force. Each system, known as a Tactical Station Group (TSG), incorporates a Tactical Operations Station (TOS) with two operating stations, a Launch Control Station (LCS), which includes wireless datalinks, networking equipment, and fiber optic cable interfaces, and a Station Support Group (SSG) which includes HMMWV-based antenna and cable support vehicles.

• Combat Use

  The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) element provides the Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) with a globally-transportable, rapidly-deployable capability to intercept and destroy ballistic missiles inside or outside the atmosphere during their final, or terminal, phase of flight. The THAAD missile is capable of shooting down a ballistic missile both inside and just outside the atmosphere. The missile is highly effective against ballistic missile threats and uses hit-to-kill technology whereby kinetic energy destroys the incoming warhead. The high-altitude intercept mitigates the effects of enemy weapons of mass destruction before they reach the ground.