Hypervelocity impact of spaced plates by a mock kill vehicle

In support of the National Missile Defense (NMD) program, a series of Light Gas Gun (LGG) lethality tests were conducted at the Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC). A new projectile was designed for this test series that would be representative of aspects of a generic NMD system kill vehicle. A series of projectile development tests were performed during the design phase of the projectile. This paper reports the results from the second development shot, in which the projectile impacted normally against two thin aluminum target plates, spaced approximately 5.5 diameters apart. Results reported include the documentation of the damage to the first and second plates, the debris generated behind the first plate, and correlation of these with analytical and numerical predictions. Hydrocodes used for analyses included ALE3D, run by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and CTH, run by the Sandia National Laboratory. The purpose of the hydrocode analyses was to help in assessing the ability of these codes to predict the debris formation process and the target damage.