Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle
Encyclopedia
- Most common: the RaytheonRaytheonRaytheon Company is a major American defense contractor and industrial corporation with core manufacturing concentrations in weapons and military and commercial electronics. It was previously involved in corporate and special-mission aircraft until early 2007...
-manufactured interceptor component with subcontractor AerojetAerojetAerojet is an American rocket and missile propulsion manufacturer based primarily in Rancho Cordova, California with divisions in Redmond, Washington, Orange, Gainesville and Camden, Arkansas. Aerojet is owned by GenCorp. They are the only US propulsion company that provides both solid rocket...
of the U.S. Ground-Based Midcourse DefenseGround-Based Midcourse DefenseGround-Based Midcourse Defense is the United States system for intercepting incoming warheads in space. Currently, it is a major component of the U.S. national missile defense strategy aimed against ballistic missiles, including intercontinental ballistic missiles...
(GMD), part the larger National Missile Defense system. - Any exoatmospheric (outside the atmosphere) kinetic kill interceptor.
The Raytheon EKV is launched by the Ground Based Interceptor (GBI) missile, the launch vehicle of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense System. The EKV's own rockets and fuel are for corrections in the trajectory, not for further acceleration.
An 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. EKV devices appear in both ground and ship based missile defense systems.
Characteristics (of the Raytheon's EKV)
- Weight: approx. 140 lb (64 kg)
- Length: 55 in (1.4 m)
- Diameter: 24 in (0.6 m)
- Speed of projectile: roughly 10 km/s (22,000 mph)
External links
- http://www.raytheon.com/products/ekv/
- http://www.oss.goodrich.com/ExoatmosphericKillVehicle.shtml