Arizona Daily Star:
Tucson-based Raytheon Missile Systems and Lockheed Martin have been awarded contracts to revive the idea of a multiple-warhead ballistic missile interceptor.
According to a Pentagon contract notice issued Tuesday, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency awarded Raytheon and Lockheed similar contracts of about $10 million each to define concepts for the “Multi-Object Kill Vehicle,” designed to destroy several objects in one threat area with advanced sensor, flight-control and communications technologies. Kill vehicles are essentially non-explosive warheads, destroying their targets by high-speed impact.
The Raytheon work will be performed in Tucson, with estimated completion by May, the Defense Department said.
Raytheon and Lockheed were competing to develop and produce a multiple-warhead missile interceptor concept called the Multiple Kill Vehicle, before it was canceled as part of other budget cuts in 2009.
Raytheon makes the Standard Missile-3, the interceptor used with the sea-based Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense system, as well as the Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle, or EKV, used in longer-range interceptors as part of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system.
The MDA plans to lead a redesign of the single kill vehicle for the current ground-based interceptor system, following several test failures of Raytheon’s latest version of the EKV.
