USMC ‘successfully' conducts MRIC prototype live-fire test

The US Marine Corps (USMC) announced that it “successfully” used its Medium Range Intercept Capability (MRIC) prototype to target cruise missiles during a 16 December test at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. This is the first event in a series of three live-fire tests planned for fiscal year (FY) 2022.

“This first round of tests is part of a series of live-fire events scheduled for FY 2022, all of which will be carried out against relevant and increasingly more challenging cruise missile profiles,” the service wrote in a 21 December announcement. “This test series will stress the system and define the system's proficiency and potential.”

An MRIC prototype integrates key components of Rafael's Iron Dome – to include the mini-Battle Management Control (BMC), launcher, and Tamir missile – with the service's AN/TPS-80 Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar (G/ATOR) and its Common Aviation Command-and-Control System (CAC2S).

Service leaders conducted an initial demonstration of the capability in August 2019 and are using this test phase to improve the interfaces between two key components. The first component is Joint Light Tactical Vehicles integrated with a ‘shelter' that houses the CAC2S and a mini-BMC for the Tamir missile. The second component involves moving the Tamir launcher off its heavier base and on to the back of a trailer, but this change will not be tested until the final test in FY 2022, Janes previously reported.

The USMC had not responded to Janes'