Endo LEAP Flight Test Planning

The Atmospheric Interceptor Technology AIT program formerly Endo LEAP is focused on demonstrating strapdown seekers and strapdown guidance for very small miss distance intercepts at very high velocities against ballistic missiles within the atmosphere. This is being accomplished by advancing state-of-the-art technologies for small, lightweight, highly integrated kinetic energy kill vehicles KV. Ground testing cannot fully duplicate the simultaneous interaction of the severe aerodynamic, aerothermal, and aero-optical conditions of hypervelocity flight within the atmosphere. Therefore, flight testing is required to fully validate the integrated technologies. The electro-optical ISO flight testing is the impetus of this paper and can be broken down into two major elements component flights and intercept flights. The component flights are utilized to resolve critical issues which will enable intercept flights, gather phenomenology data, and validate ISO window concepts. In the intercept flights, prime contractor KVs will be flown against representative targets to demonstrate hit-to-kill HTK with aimpoint selection on the target lethal package. Initial studies indicate that both types of flights can be implemented utilizing boosters, launchers, and the organizational framework of existing interceptor systems.