While we anxiously wait for today's crucial Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI) test flight, here's some promising news about our future Multiple Kill Vehicle:
Lockheed Martin announced today that its team successfully conducted a free-flight hover test of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency's Multiple Kill Vehicle-L. Conducted Dec. 2 at the National Hover Test Facility at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., the test met all objectives.
...
The full-scale prototype flew at an altitude of approximately 23 feet (7 meters) for 20 seconds, maneuvering while simultaneously tracking a target.
Currently our GBI's loft only a single kill vehicle to engage a threat --- each threat gets one interceptor, which obviously gets hairy (and expensive). The plan is to put MKV's atop our GBI's:
During an engagement with the enemy, the MKV-L with its cargo of kill vehicles will maneuver into the threat complex to intercept all lethal targets, along with any countermeasures the enemy may deploy in an attempt to trick the system. With tracking data from the Ballistic Missile Defense System and its own seeker, the MKV-L will dispense and guide the kill vehicles to destroy multiple targets.
Here's an MKV video to watch while we wait for news from the Pacific:
UPDATE: Hover test video!
It's interesting that today on Ace of Spades, they showed a minaturized Hit-To-Kill vehicle intercepting a threat RPG after being vertically launched, as part of the development of Future Combat Systems (FCS).
Link to it
But remember, Hit to Kill is untested
Posted by: Ryan Crierie | December 05, 2008 at 02:57 PM