Arizona Central:
… If any projects at Raytheon embody the company’s high-tech focus, they are the missile-defense systems.
Should North Korea or another nation ever launch an intercontinental ballistic missile at the U.S., it likely would be a Raytheon product that shoots it out of the sky.
This feat could be accomplished with an “exoatmospheric kill vehicle.” The EKV is a high-speed and precise craft designed to be carried into space by a large rocket. There, it separates from the rocket, homes in on its target and, ideally, destroys an incoming missile without an explosive, simply by crashing into the target at high speed.
In the analogy Raytheon executives use, the system is like a bullet shooting another bullet out of the sky. Experts will note, however, that ballistic missiles fly much faster than bullets.
Raytheon is a subcontractor that provided the EKVs as part of the Department of Defense’s Ground-Based Midcourse Defense system, which aims to destroy incoming missiles before they make a final descent.
Twenty-six interceptors are assigned to Fort Greely, Alaska, An additional 14 interceptors will be deployed to the base southeast of Fairbanks by 2017. Four interceptors are assigned to Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Raytheon provided all of the EKVs for the interceptors as a subcontractor to Boeing.
The system’s last test, in June 2014, was a success. The U.S. launched an intercontinental missile from the Marshall Islands, and the interceptor rocket launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base. The kill vehicle crashed into the missile over the Pacific Ocean.
Critics of the program have voiced concern over its imperfect record of test flights, in which nine of 16 target missiles have been destroyed since 1999.
Earlier this year, the Brookings Institution stated that it would be more cost-effective for the U.S. to invest in offensive-weapons technology rather than the missile-defense program because of those technical challenges.
“For the foreseeable future, offense wins the offense-defense relationship,” wrote Steven Pifer, director of the Brookings Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Initiative, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. “Offensive ballistic missile technology is far more mature than that of missile defense, and cost considerations favor the offense.”
Because of the spotty record, it might take more than one interceptor to thwart a ballistic attack on the U.S., but officials at the the Defense Department’s Missile Defense Agency say they are confident in the GMD system.
The Missile Defense Agency also intends to refine the kill-vehicle technology as more interceptors are deployed.
“We are very confident the GMD element can meet near-term threats from countries like Iran and North Korea and will be able to provide improved capability against future threats as we progress with the redesigned EKV program now underway,” said Richard Lehner, a spokesman for the agency. “Combatant commanders have stated time and again that they have a high level of confidence in the GMD element.”
Another Raytheon product, the Standard Missile, has similar ballistic missile targeting capabilities but can be launched from land or sea. Raytheon has delivered more than 200 of the Standard Missile 3 to the U.S. and Japan …
