A suborbital rocket provided by Orbital Sciences has been used by the US Army's Theater Missile Defense (TMD) Critical Measurements Programme (TCMP) to collect optical and radar data.
Orbital's Launch Systems Group is responsible for the design, production, test, integration and launch of the TCMP programme launch vehicles, which is overseen by the US Army Space and Missile Defense Command. With sponsorship from the Ballistic Missile Defense Organisation (BMDO), TCMP aims to reduce TMD system development risk by characterising re-entry and potential countermeasures behaviour in and out of the atmosphere.
Orbital is one of the US' suppliers and operators of suborbital boosters used by US Department of Defense customers to test defensive weapons systems. In addition to TCMP, Orbital supplies ballistic target vehicles for the US Army's PAC-3 program, the US Navy's Theater Wide (NTW) programme and BMDO's National Missile Defense (NMD) programme. Orbital is also providing Vandal target launch services and is developing a Supersonic Sea Skimming Target (SSST) to test US Navy cruise missile defense systems.
http://defence-data.com/