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US speeds up weapon development, production and conversion programmes
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| 09 January 2004 |
Northrop Grumman and Raytheon have been selected to develop the Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI), a high-speed missile intended to destroy hostile ballistic missiles while they are in the boost/ascent phase of flight.
The award follows a US$10 million, eight-month concept design effort during which two competing teams (Northrop/Raytheon and Lockheed Martin/Boeing) produced concepts for a KEI boost-phase programme intended to complement other US boost, mid-course and terminal defence interceptor programmes currently under way.
An industrial team headed by Northrop Grumman will develop and test this boost-phase element of the US Missile Defense Agency's global layered missile defence system. The contract will be worth more than US$4 billion over eight years and is expected to result in the deployment of an operational system some time around 2010-2012.
As its name suggests, the KEI will be a 'hit-to-kill' system, relying on the kinetic energy from a direct collision between the kill vehicle and the enemy missile.
Intercepting ballistic missiles while they are still in the powered stages of flight requires a high-speed missile with the ability to cope with a target that is emitting a strong plume of efflux and which could be staging at the moment of interception. By attacking the missile at this early stage of flight, the defender does not have to deal with multiple warheads or penetration aids.
A study conducted last year by the American Physical Society, an organisation for professional physicists in the US, warned that the performance of boost-phase interceptors could be degraded by measures such as the near-simultaneous launch of several missiles, the use of rocket-propelled decoys and jammers, or evasive manoeuvres intended to overwhelm the agility and guidance and control capabilities of the interceptor or exhaust its propellant.
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