Boeing [NYSE: BA] successfully completed the first flight tests of the Conventional Air-Launched Cruise Missile (CALCM) / Air-Launched Cruise Missile (ALCM) Test Instrumentation Kit (CATIK) Aug. 7 at the Utah Test and Training Range, Hill Air Force Base, Utah.
After launching the ALCM, configured with a simulated warhead, from a B-52 Stratofortress bomber, the U.S. Air Force used the CATIK to monitor in-flight missile performance and transmit the information to the flight test control center.
"We are very pleased with the success of this first flight," said John Griffith, Boeing ALCM/CALCM program manager. "The new CATIK will allow the Air Force to continue the flight test program through 2030."
ALCM is a self-guided weapon that carries a nuclear warhead. CALCM, designed in the 1990s, carries a conventional warhead. When launched, ALCM weapons fly to their targets using terrain correlation mapping, and CALCM weapons use Global Positioning System guidance. During flight tests, they fly a preprogrammed course over the range for approximately four hours.
Boeing will deliver the first production CATIK units in early 2007 under a contract worth approximately $38 million.