Exoatmospheric expertise
Raytheon using lessons from EKV to build Next Generation Interceptor
Caryn Nath looked on with confidence as the missile-killing projectile her team built lifted off from a military base in southern California and hurtled into space.
Its destination: A target playing the role of an intermediate-range ballistic missile, launched from a transport aircraft near the Hawaiian island of Kauai.
Nath watched the monitors as radars and command-and-control nodules – some near the target, some as far away as Colorado – tracked the missile and cued the response.
Then, impact.
The projectile, known as the Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle, smashed into the target and destroyed it – an ideal outcome by every measure.
"It was awesome," Nath said. "It performed as required, and perfectly."
The test, conducted by the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, further validated EKV – and, by extension, Raytheon's ability to produce interceptors that defeat missiles in space. Raytheon, an RTX business, is using its work on EKV as the foundation of another spacefaring missile-killer: the Next Generation Interceptor, a system it is codeveloping with Northrop Grumman to defend the United States against modern and future intercontinental ballistic missiles.
The NGI is a prime piece of tech advancement and transfer. It will bring together proven kinetic technology from the EKV and advance those capabilities with cutting-edge software development in threat detection and payload deployment.
The new interceptor will have to scale up EKV’s capabilities; while the existing system takes out threats one at a time, the new one must be able to destroy multiple ICBMs at once – all while distinguishing them from debris, decoys and adversary countermeasures.
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“Our threat is advancing,” said Shelley Moehle, the director of Next Generation Interceptor program management for Raytheon. “Our adversaries would be sending up threats that have more than one thing to be intercepted at a time.”
The NGI program draws on decades of Raytheon’s missiles defense experience and systems integration in so-called “hit-to-kill” vehicle technology, or interceptors that destroy their target with impact, rather than a warhead. With decades of experience in developing advanced interceptors and sensors, Raytheon is the leading provider of missile defense capabilities.
“All that learning from real-world testing, modeling and simulations – it's an unmatched experience set,” Moehle said.
The most recent EKV test marked the 13th intercept for the program. It required months of extensive planning, analysis, ground testing and hardware processing.
“There are plenty of lessons learned to improve the technology,” Nath said. “The learning curve is not going to be that much.”
Data collected during the test will help validate and verify the models and simulations that indicate how well the system is performing. The results of this test will also validate the operational capabilities of the GMD system and provide the warfighter with confidence in responding to potential enemy ballistic missile threats.
“The fact that multiple suppliers and resources all over the U.S. were able to come together, work toward a common goal and execute that goal flawlessly for a successful flight test was amazing,” Nath said.
She and her team beamed as they watched the EKV succeed – not just in its test that day, but in building confidence in Raytheon’s abilities to deliver the new interceptor.
“Seeing the military servicemembers’ faces excited and how proud they were,” she said, “makes us feel good.”