TESTING OF THEATER MISSILE DEFENSE INTERCEPTORS.

SEC. 252. TESTING OF THEATER MISSILE DEFENSE INTERCEPTORS. Subsection (a) of section 237 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1994 (Public Law 103–160; 107 Stat. 1600) is amended to read as follows: “(a) Testing of Theater Missile Defense Interceptors.— (1) The Secretary of Defense may not approve a theater missile defense interceptor program proceeding beyond the low-rate initial production acquisition stage until the Secretary certifies to the congressional defense committees that such program has successfully completed initial operational test and evaluation. “(2) In order to be certified under paragraph (1) as having been successfully completed, the initial operational test and evaluation conducted with respect to an interceptors program must have included flight tests— “(A) that were conducted with multiple interceptors and multiple targets in the presence of realistic countermeasures; and “(B) the results of which demonstrate the achievement by the interceptors of the baseline performance thresholds. “(3) For purposes of this subsection, the baseline performance thresholds with respect to a program are the weapons systems performance thresholds specified in the baseline description for the system established (pursuant to section 2435(a)(1) of title 10, United States Code) before the program entered the engineering and manufacturing development stage. “(4) The number of flight tests described in paragraph (2) that are required in order to make the certification under paragraph (1) shall be a number determined by the Secretary of Defense to be sufficient for the purposes of this section. “(5) The Secretary may augment live-fire testing to demonstrate weapons system performance goals for purposes of the certification under paragraph (1) through the use of modeling and simulation that is validated by ground and flight testing.”.