The Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV) is the

Raytheon Raytheon Technologies Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense conglomerate headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. It is one of the largest aerospace and defense manufacturers in the world by revenue and market capitali ...

-manufactured interceptor component with subcontractor

Aerojet Aerojet was an American rocket and missile propulsion manufacturer based primarily in Rancho Cordova, California, with divisions in Redmond, Washington, Orange and Gainesville in Virginia, and Camden, Arkansas. Aerojet was owned by GenCorp. I ...

of the U.S. Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD), part of the larger

National Missile Defense National missile defense (NMD) is a generic term for a type of missile defense intended to shield an entire country against incoming missiles, such as intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBMs) or other ballistic missiles. This is also used ...

system. The EKV is boosted to an intercept trajectory by a boost vehicle (missile), where it separates from the boost vehicle and autonomously collides with an incoming warhead. The EKV is launched by the

Ground-Based Interceptor The Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI) is the anti-ballistic missile component of the United States' Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system. Description This interceptor is made up of a boost vehicle, constructed by Orbital Sciences Corporat ...

(GBI) missile, the

launch vehicle A launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket designed to carry a payload ( spacecraft or satellites) from the Earth's surface to outer space. Most launch vehicles operate from a launch pads, supported by a launch control center and sys ...

of the GMD system. The EKV's own rockets and fuel are for corrections in the trajectory, not for further acceleration. The successor to the EKV, known as the Redesigned Kill Vehicle (RKV), was scheduled to debut in 2025. The RKV program, headed by Boeing and lead subcontractor Raytheon, was canceled by the Department of Defense on August 21, 2019. Earlier in the year, the Pentagon had issued a stop work order on the project following a design review deferment in December 2018 due to the failure of critical components meeting technical specification. ''See

Next generation interceptor (NGI) The Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI) is the anti-ballistic missile component of the United States' Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system. Description This interceptor is made up of a boost vehicle, constructed by Orbital Sciences Corpora ...

Characteristics

* Weight: approx. 140 lb (64 kg) * Length: 55 in (4 ft. 7 in.) (1.4 m) * Diameter: 24 in (2 ft.) (0.6 m) * Speed of projectile: roughly 10 km/s (22,000 mph)

References

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20080315061300/http://www.raytheon.com/products/ekv/ * https://archive.today/20060314045159/http://www.oss.goodrich.com/ExoatmosphericKillVehicle.shtml Space weapons Raytheon Company products {{Spacecraft-stub

Characteristics

See also

References

External links