Navy Vice Adm. James Syring, director of the Missile Defense Agency, has said MDA aims to begin flight tests of its modified kill vehicle in 2018 and field the platform by 2019, Space News reported Wednesday.
Mike Gruss writes the Redesigned Kill Vehicle program will serve as a technical bridge for the development of the agency’s future Multi-Object Kill Vehicle and use ideas from three contractors.
“If you can put more kill vehicles on an interceptor, the better chance you have of reducing the number of shots you need to defeat the threat,” Syring told his audience at a Center for Strategic and International Studies-hosted forum Tuesday.
MDA awarded Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon contracts worth a combined $29.3 million in August last year to develop MOKV prototypes.
Syring also noted at the CSIS event that MDA has also launched a three-year effort to mature airborne laser technology for integration into a high-altitude unmanned aerial vehicle, Defense One’s Marcus Weisgerber reports.
Weisgerber writes the laser-equipped drone will be designed to soar at least 65,000 feet and intercept ballistic missile threats.
