Raytheon Demos Kill Vehicle In-Flight Performance; Taylor Lawrence Comments

Raytheon has tested the in-flight performance of the company’s Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle during a Missile Defense Agency demonstration intended to gather data on the capability of the vehicle’s thrusters.

The redesigned EKV’s thrusters have been modified to control the impact with incoming threats while outside of the Earth’s atmosphere, Raytheon said Thursday.

“Testing is critically important to ensuring the advancement of reliable kill vehicles for the protection of the U.S. homeland,” said Taylor Lawrence, president of Raytheon missile systems.

During the test, MDA launched a ballistic missile target and maneuvered the kill vehicle to evade the target in order.

EKV is developed to destroy in-flight ballistic missile threats.

Raytheon used its sea-based X-band and AN/TPY-2 radars to support the ground-based midcourse defense system.