Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD)

Overview

THAAD provides a transportable, rapidly deployable ground-based regional missile defense capability to intercept and destroy short, medium, and intermediate-range ballistic missiles in the terminal or final phase of flight.

Key Features

THAAD is designed to intercept threats both inside and outside the Earth's atmosphere providing a critical capability for defense against ballistic missile attacks. The system is mobile, rapidly deployable and able to defend military, allied forces, citizen population centers, critical infrastructure and other critical assets anywhere in the world within hours.

DESIGN BENEFITS

Attitude and axial control
Hit-to-kill precision
Hypergolic, bi-propellant
Compact
Reliable history from Minuteman III to Peacekeeper Stage 4
Thrust vectoring nozzle

OUR ROLE

Aerojet Rocketdyne, an L3Harris Technologies company, supplies both the solid rocket booster motor technology that powers the interceptor, as well as the Divert and Attitude Control System (DACS), a high-precision, quick-reaction propulsion system that positions the interceptor to successfully defeat an incoming ballistic missile.

The unique DACS provides two kinds of propulsion: one for attitude control and another for kill-vehicle maneuvering. The DACS uses six thrusters to provide roll, pitch and yaw control for the interceptor. These thrusters work together to precisely stabilize the interceptor-seeker field of view for proper target visibility. The seeker's target data are then converted into maneuvering or divert commands that actuate the other four DACS thrusters as required. The four divert thrusters provide short, forceful pulses to quickly and accurately position the THAAD kill vehicle for target intercept. The DACS performs over a demanding range of temperatures, shock and vibration-flight environments.

Approved for Public Release
19-MDA-9965 (13 Mar 19)

Media Gallery

What is THAAD?

October 21, 2009 - THAAD launcher. (Credit: MDA)

July 11, 2017 - THAAD interceptor launched during Flight Test THAAD (FTT)-18. (Credit: MDA)

July 11, 2017 - A THAAD interceptor is launched from the Pacific Spaceport Complex Alaska, Kodiak, Alaska, during Flight Test THAAD-18. (Credit: Leah Garton/MDA)

A Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptor is launched from the Pacific Spaceport Complex Alaska in Kodiak, Alaska, during Flight Experiment THAAD (FET)-01 on July 30, 2017 (EDT). (Credit: MDA)

Aug. 30, 2019 - U.S. MDA, Ballistic Missile Defense System Operational Test Agency and U.S. Army soldiers of the E-62 Battery, 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, conduct an intercept test of the THAAD element of the nation's BMD System. (Credit: MDA)

Aug. 30, 2019 - A THAAD interceptor is launched from the Reagan Test Site, Kwajalein Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, during Flight Test THAAD-23. (Credit: MDA)

Photo is from second launch on Nov. 1, 2015. (Credit: MDA)

July 12, 2006 - A successful launch of a THAAD interceptor missile. Primary test objective was to demonstrate interceptor seeker characterization of a ballistic missile target in the high-endoatmosphere (inside the earth's atmosphere). (Credit: MDA)

June 29, 2010 - The MDA and U.S. Army soldiers, 6th Air Defense Artillery Brigade from Fort Bliss, Texas, successfully conducted an intercept test for the THAAD missile defense element of the nation's BMD System. (Credit: MDA)

Nov. 1, 2015 - THAAD interceptor is launched from a THAAD battery located on Wake Island during Flight Test Operational (FTO)-02 Event 2a. The THAAD system successfully intercepted two air-launched ballistic missile targets, Launch 1. (Credit: MDA)