MULTIPLE KILL VEHICLE

Abstract

The Ballistic Missile Defense System needs volume kill capability to respond to evolving enemy threats. During flight, the enemy can disguise their warhead or deploy decoys and other debris around their warhead. These disguises make it harder for our sensors to determine which object is the actual lethal warhead. Today, we would have to launch multiple interceptors, each with a single kill vehicle, to ensure we hit the lethal warhead. Our multiple kill vehicle payloads will allow a single interceptor to deliver several kill vehicles to attack a multitude of threat objects. We were developing kill vehicles for ground-based midcourse interceptors, kinetic energy interceptors, and Aegis Standard Missile-3. These kill vehicles use information from the system to identify, seek out, and destroy lethal objects within a threat cluster. While in flight, the kill vehicles receive and transmit data from the ground to ensure they hit their designated targets. With the multiple kill vehicles, we can destroy all credible objects with one interceptor. This saves interceptor inventory and reduces infrastructure costs. Our top payload maturity risks are in propulsion, engagement management, coordinated attack, and the seeker. Our top programmatic risks are in achieving commonality, reducing cost, and proving we are ready for testing, production, and fielding. Our knowledge points demonstrate and validate confidence in the payloads`: Major subsystems capabilities Engagement management performance Seeker algorithms Readiness in hardware-in-the-loop test facilities and flight testing Commonality among kill vehicles Production cost commitments, rates, and processes Procurement and fielding

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Document Details

Document Type
R2 Budgetary Justification
Publication Date
Oct 01, 2011
Source ID
0603894C_4_0400_PB_2011
Change Summary Explanation
FY 2009 decrease of $57,454 thousand for year of execution reprogrammings to support BMDS priorities $4,182 thousand to support the SBIR/STTR Program and 46,036 thousand OUSD Mid Year Reduction.
Service Agency Name
Missile Defense Agency

Entities

Organizations

  • Missile Defense Agency

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Arrays
  • Ballistic Missiles
  • Contract Administration
  • Contractors
  • Contracts
  • Cost Analysis
  • Costs
  • Defense Systems
  • Engineering
  • Focal Plane Arrays
  • Focal Planes
  • Kill Vehicles
  • Prototypes
  • Test And Evaluation
  • Test Facilities
  • Vehicles

Readers

  • Missile Defense Systems.

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