{"id":60581,"date":"2020-08-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-17T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2020\/08\/17\/the-us-army-is-building-zombies-no-not-the-brain-eating-kind\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T00:26:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:26:19","slug":"the-us-army-is-building-zombies-no-not-the-brain-eating-kind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/land\/2020\/08\/17\/the-us-army-is-building-zombies-no-not-the-brain-eating-kind\/","title":{"rendered":"The US Army is building zombies. (No, not the brain-eating kind.)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 The U.S. Army is recycling demilitarized rocket motors and repurposing the materials to make test missiles and it\u2019s saving the service money, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/digital-show-dailies\/smd\/2020\/08\/05\/heres-how-the-dod-plans-to-meet-its-ambitious-hypersonic-missile-test-schedule\/\" target=_blank>Thomas Webber, director of the Army\u2019s Space and Missile Defense Command Technical Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These test missiles are called \u201czombies\u201d and save the Army from having to destroy old boosters, giving them a new life, Webber said during the Defense News Space and Missile Defense Symposium Debrief event Aug. 5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The effort started several years ago when the Army\u2019s Program Executive Office for Missiles and Space and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/digital-show-dailies\/ausa\/2018\/10\/10\/so-patriot-and-thaad-will-talk-what-does-that-really-mean\/\" target=_blank>Patriot air and missile defense lower-tier product office<\/a> began running out of targets for tests and spending \u201ca lot\u201d of money to buy more targets, Webber said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The tech center proposed a \u201csignificantly cheaper\u201d solution of using recycled motors reaching the end of operational life that would be appropriate for both developmental and operational missile tests, which are accurately representative of ballistic missile threats, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Following a demonstration at the end of 2016, the zombies have taken off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019ve been very successful,\u201d Webber said. Since then, the program has expanded, providing targets not only for Patriot testing, but also the Missile Defense Agency and foreign military sales test events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Army has built seven targets to date. There are three variants: Pathfinder Zombie; the Black Dagger Zombie that adds an additional booster \u2014 the Terrier MK70 \u2014 for longer ranges; and Sabre, a shorter-range version.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A zombie was the target used in a r<a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/land\/2019\/08\/30\/first-remotely-launched-terminal-missile-defense-test-deemed-a-success\/\" target=_blank>ecent critical test<\/a> showing the Patriot system could be interoperable with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/land\/2018\/04\/06\/army-missile-defense-systems-patriot-and-thaad-talk-in-test\/\" target=_blank>Army\u2019s Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system<\/a>, Webber said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another target was successfully deployed in a June 25 test at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, for a foreign military sales customer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The targets will be used in some of the upcoming tests that will help officials make decisions on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/breaking-news\/2019\/10\/17\/heres-who-will-build-the-armys-new-missile-defense-radar\/\" target=_blank>Lower-Tier Air-Defense Sensor<\/a>, the future radar for the Army\u2019s Integrated Air-and-Missile Defense System to replace Patriot, Webber noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Specifically, a Black Dagger will be used during the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/land\/2020\/07\/31\/after-covid-delay-high-stakes-test-of-armys-critical-battle-command-system-underway\/\" target=_blank>IAMD Battle Command System limited-user test<\/a> coming up next month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt has been a tremendous boon for us to be able to provide a more affordable, effective target,\u201d Webber said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He added that the Army is saving roughly 50 percent of what it would cost to replace targets simply by buying more. \u201cWe can turn these around pretty quickly and support those operational test events,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And it has provided \u201cthe capability needed to be able to make sure that we\u2019re validating and testing those operational weapon systems with regular and recurring test events,\u201d Webber said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Army is building zombies \u2014 threat-representative ballistic missile targets for tests using recycled hardware \u2014 and it&#8217;s saving the service cash.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":116295,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":14,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["your-military","news","left-column","home","middle-column"],"primary_category":"your-military"},"5":{"categories":["your-army","news","left-column","home","middle-column","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"your-army"}}},"categories":[160,29,14,36,99],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3330],"class_list":["post-60581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-digital-show-dailies","category-land","category-newsletters","category-smd"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"2LEFST3THZGS3JWNSDX3CSKRKQ","arc_canonical_url":"\/land\/2020\/08\/16\/the-us-army-is-building-zombies-no-not-the-brain-eating-kind\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The US Army is building zombies. (No, not the brain-eating kind.) - Defense News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Army is building zombies \u2014 threat-representative ballistic missile targets for tests using recycled hardware \u2014 and it&#039;s saving the service cash.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The US Army is building zombies. (No, not the brain-eating kind.)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Army is building zombies \u2014 threat-representative ballistic missile targets for tests using recycled hardware \u2014 and it&#039;s saving the service cash.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/land\/2020\/08\/17\/the-us-army-is-building-zombies-no-not-the-brain-eating-kind\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Defense News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-08-17T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-08T00:26:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jen Judson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jen Judson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\n\t    \"@context\": \"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\n\t    \"@graph\": [\n\t        {\n\t            \"@type\": \"Article\",\n\t            \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/land\\\/2020\\\/08\\\/17\\\/the-us-army-is-building-zombies-no-not-the-brain-eating-kind\\\/#article\",\n\t            \"isPartOf\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/land\\\/2020\\\/08\\\/17\\\/the-us-army-is-building-zombies-no-not-the-brain-eating-kind\\\/\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"author\": {\n\t                \"name\": \"migration\",\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/cc76c831bb37a926738c8391fca7a3b1\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"headline\": \"The US Army is building zombies. (No, not the brain-eating kind.)\",\n\t            \"datePublished\": \"2020-08-17T00:00:00+00:00\",\n\t            \"dateModified\": \"2026-08-08T00:26:19+00:00\",\n\t            \"mainEntityOfPage\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/land\\\/2020\\\/08\\\/17\\\/the-us-army-is-building-zombies-no-not-the-brain-eating-kind\\\/\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"wordCount\": 446,\n\t            \"commentCount\": 0,\n\t            \"publisher\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/#organization\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"image\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/land\\\/2020\\\/08\\\/17\\\/the-us-army-is-building-zombies-no-not-the-brain-eating-kind\\\/#primaryimage\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"thumbnailUrl\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/Zombiemissiletarget.jpg.jpg\",\n\t            \"articleSection\": [\n\t                \"Daily News Roundup\",\n\t                \"Digital Show Dailies\",\n\t                \"Land\",\n\t                \"Newsletters\",\n\t                \"Space and Missile Defense\"\n\t            ],\n\t            \"inLanguage\": \"en-US\",\n\t            \"potentialAction\": [\n\t                {\n\t                    \"@type\": \"CommentAction\",\n\t                    \"name\": \"Comment\",\n\t                    \"target\": [\n\t                        \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/land\\\/2020\\\/08\\\/17\\\/the-us-army-is-building-zombies-no-not-the-brain-eating-kind\\\/#respond\"\n\t                    ]\n\t                }\n\t            ]\n\t        },\n\t        {\n\t            \"@type\": \"WebPage\",\n\t            \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/land\\\/2020\\\/08\\\/17\\\/the-us-army-is-building-zombies-no-not-the-brain-eating-kind\\\/\",\n\t            \"url\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/land\\\/2020\\\/08\\\/17\\\/the-us-army-is-building-zombies-no-not-the-brain-eating-kind\\\/\",\n\t            \"name\": \"The US Army is building zombies. (No, not the brain-eating kind.) - Defense News\",\n\t            \"isPartOf\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/#website\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"primaryImageOfPage\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/land\\\/2020\\\/08\\\/17\\\/the-us-army-is-building-zombies-no-not-the-brain-eating-kind\\\/#primaryimage\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"image\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/land\\\/2020\\\/08\\\/17\\\/the-us-army-is-building-zombies-no-not-the-brain-eating-kind\\\/#primaryimage\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"thumbnailUrl\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/Zombiemissiletarget.jpg.jpg\",\n\t            \"datePublished\": \"2020-08-17T00:00:00+00:00\",\n\t            \"dateModified\": \"2026-08-08T00:26:19+00:00\",\n\t            \"description\": \"The Army is building zombies \u2014 threat-representative ballistic missile targets for tests using recycled hardware \u2014 and it's saving the service cash.\",\n\t            \"breadcrumb\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/land\\\/2020\\\/08\\\/17\\\/the-us-army-is-building-zombies-no-not-the-brain-eating-kind\\\/#breadcrumb\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"inLanguage\": \"en-US\",\n\t            \"potentialAction\": [\n\t                {\n\t                    \"@type\": \"ReadAction\",\n\t                    \"target\": [\n\t                        \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/land\\\/2020\\\/08\\\/17\\\/the-us-army-is-building-zombies-no-not-the-brain-eating-kind\\\/\"\n\t                    ]\n\t                }\n\t            ]\n\t        },\n\t        {\n\t            \"@type\": \"ImageObject\",\n\t            \"inLanguage\": \"en-US\",\n\t            \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/land\\\/2020\\\/08\\\/17\\\/the-us-army-is-building-zombies-no-not-the-brain-eating-kind\\\/#primaryimage\",\n\t            \"url\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/Zombiemissiletarget.jpg.jpg\",\n\t            \"contentUrl\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/Zombiemissiletarget.jpg.jpg\"\n\t        },\n\t        {\n\t            \"@type\": \"BreadcrumbList\",\n\t            \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/land\\\/2020\\\/08\\\/17\\\/the-us-army-is-building-zombies-no-not-the-brain-eating-kind\\\/#breadcrumb\",\n\t            \"itemListElement\": [\n\t                {\n\t                    \"@type\": \"ListItem\",\n\t                    \"position\": 1,\n\t                    \"name\": \"Home\",\n\t                    \"item\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/\",\n\t                    \"ad_zone\": \"home\"\n\t                },\n\t                {\n\t                    \"@type\": \"ListItem\",\n\t                    \"position\": 2,\n\t                    \"name\": \"Land\",\n\t                    \"item\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/land\\\/\",\n\t                    \"ad_zone\": \"land\"\n\t                },\n\t                {\n\t                    \"@type\": \"ListItem\",\n\t                    \"position\": 3,\n\t                    \"name\": \"The US Army is building zombies. (No, not the brain-eating kind.)\"\n\t                }\n\t            ]\n\t        },\n\t        {\n\t            \"@type\": \"WebSite\",\n\t            \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/#website\",\n\t            \"url\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/\",\n\t            \"name\": \"Defense News\",\n\t            \"description\": \"Covering the politics, business and technology of defense | Defense News\",\n\t            \"publisher\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/#organization\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"potentialAction\": [\n\t                {\n\t                    \"@type\": \"SearchAction\",\n\t                    \"target\": {\n\t                        \"@type\": \"EntryPoint\",\n\t                        \"urlTemplate\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"\n\t                    },\n\t                    \"query-input\": {\n\t                        \"@type\": \"PropertyValueSpecification\",\n\t                        \"valueRequired\": true,\n\t                        \"valueName\": \"search_term_string\"\n\t                    }\n\t                }\n\t            ],\n\t            \"inLanguage\": \"en-US\"\n\t        },\n\t        {\n\t            \"@type\": \"Organization\",\n\t            \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/#organization\",\n\t            \"name\": \"Defense News\",\n\t            \"url\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/\",\n\t            \"logo\": {\n\t                \"@type\": \"ImageObject\",\n\t                \"inLanguage\": \"en-US\",\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\n\t                \"url\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/defensenews-logo-white.png\",\n\t                \"contentUrl\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/defensenews-logo-white.png\",\n\t                \"caption\": \"Defense News\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"image\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"\n\t            }\n\t        },\n\t        {\n\t            \"@type\": \"Person\",\n\t            \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/cc76c831bb37a926738c8391fca7a3b1\",\n\t            \"name\": \"migration\",\n\t            \"image\": {\n\t                \"@type\": \"ImageObject\",\n\t                \"inLanguage\": \"en-US\",\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/9e8d47be443ce94ce7fc357677b5f9c70235bb1f59e7267a102a74af58c04f59?s=96&d=mm&r=gcf4cb6ee0ec29e49e7a963234e4340ec\",\n\t                \"url\": \"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/9e8d47be443ce94ce7fc357677b5f9c70235bb1f59e7267a102a74af58c04f59?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\n\t                \"contentUrl\": \"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/9e8d47be443ce94ce7fc357677b5f9c70235bb1f59e7267a102a74af58c04f59?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\n\t                \"caption\": \"migration\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"url\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/author\\\/migration\\\/\"\n\t        }\n\t    ]\n\t}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The US Army is building zombies. (No, not the brain-eating kind.) - Defense News","description":"The Army is building zombies \u2014 threat-representative ballistic missile targets for tests using recycled hardware \u2014 and it's saving the service cash.","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The US Army is building zombies. (No, not the brain-eating kind.)","og_description":"The Army is building zombies \u2014 threat-representative ballistic missile targets for tests using recycled hardware \u2014 and it's saving the service cash.","og_url":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/land\/2020\/08\/17\/the-us-army-is-building-zombies-no-not-the-brain-eating-kind\/","og_site_name":"Defense News","article_published_time":"2020-08-17T00:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-08-08T00:26:19+00:00","author":"Jen Judson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jen Judson","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/land\/2020\/08\/17\/the-us-army-is-building-zombies-no-not-the-brain-eating-kind\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/land\/2020\/08\/17\/the-us-army-is-building-zombies-no-not-the-brain-eating-kind\/"},"author":{"name":"migration","@id":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/#\/schema\/person\/cc76c831bb37a926738c8391fca7a3b1"},"headline":"The US Army is building zombies. (No, not the brain-eating kind.)","datePublished":"2020-08-17T00:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2026-08-08T00:26:19+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/land\/2020\/08\/17\/the-us-army-is-building-zombies-no-not-the-brain-eating-kind\/"},"wordCount":446,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/land\/2020\/08\/17\/the-us-army-is-building-zombies-no-not-the-brain-eating-kind\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Zombiemissiletarget.jpg.jpg","articleSection":["Daily News Roundup","Digital Show Dailies","Land","Newsletters","Space and Missile Defense"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/land\/2020\/08\/17\/the-us-army-is-building-zombies-no-not-the-brain-eating-kind\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/land\/2020\/08\/17\/the-us-army-is-building-zombies-no-not-the-brain-eating-kind\/","url":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/land\/2020\/08\/17\/the-us-army-is-building-zombies-no-not-the-brain-eating-kind\/","name":"The US Army is building zombies. (No, not the brain-eating kind.) - Defense News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/land\/2020\/08\/17\/the-us-army-is-building-zombies-no-not-the-brain-eating-kind\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/land\/2020\/08\/17\/the-us-army-is-building-zombies-no-not-the-brain-eating-kind\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Zombiemissiletarget.jpg.jpg","datePublished":"2020-08-17T00:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2026-08-08T00:26:19+00:00","description":"The Army is building zombies \u2014 threat-representative ballistic missile targets for tests using recycled hardware \u2014 and it's saving the service cash.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/land\/2020\/08\/17\/the-us-army-is-building-zombies-no-not-the-brain-eating-kind\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/land\/2020\/08\/17\/the-us-army-is-building-zombies-no-not-the-brain-eating-kind\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/land\/2020\/08\/17\/the-us-army-is-building-zombies-no-not-the-brain-eating-kind\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Zombiemissiletarget.jpg.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Zombiemissiletarget.jpg.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/land\/2020\/08\/17\/the-us-army-is-building-zombies-no-not-the-brain-eating-kind\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/","ad_zone":"home"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Land","item":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/land\/","ad_zone":"land"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"The US Army is building zombies. (No, not the brain-eating kind.)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/#website","url":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/","name":"Defense News","description":"Covering the politics, business and technology of defense | Defense News","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/#organization","name":"Defense News","url":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/defensenews-logo-white.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/defensenews-logo-white.png","caption":"Defense News"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/#\/schema\/person\/cc76c831bb37a926738c8391fca7a3b1","name":"migration","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9e8d47be443ce94ce7fc357677b5f9c70235bb1f59e7267a102a74af58c04f59?s=96&d=mm&r=gcf4cb6ee0ec29e49e7a963234e4340ec","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9e8d47be443ce94ce7fc357677b5f9c70235bb1f59e7267a102a74af58c04f59?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9e8d47be443ce94ce7fc357677b5f9c70235bb1f59e7267a102a74af58c04f59?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"migration"},"url":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/author\/migration\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Defense News","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews","push-errors":false,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Zombiemissiletarget.jpg.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60581"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60587,"href":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60581\/revisions\/60587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60581"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=60581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}