Thu, Dec 04, 2003
KEI -- This'll Punch Your Lights Out...
The Department of
Defense has announced that the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has
awarded a contract to Northrop Grumman Space and Mission Systems
Corp. for the development and testing of a concept for the Kinetic
Energy Interceptor (KEI) program designed to intercept and destroy
a ballistic missile in its boost/early ascent phase, which is the
period of flight lasting from three to five minutes after a
ballistic missile is launched. The contract awarded today is
approximately $4.5 billion over the next eight years. This is the
MDA's first capability-based development and test contract, and it
features a design that is no longer constrained by the
Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, from which the United States
formally withdrew in June 2002.
This award follows an eight-month concept definition effort by
two teams led by Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin. Each of the
teams received $10 million to design a KEI concept. The objective
of the contract award announced today is to develop and test a
land-based interceptor for use in a "layered" ballistic missile
defense system, possibly in 2010-2012. While the initial
interceptor would be land-based, the KEI concept will quickly
evolve to sea-basing for better proximity to some threat areas.
There are significant technical and operational challenges to be
solved in successfully developing a boost phase intercept
capability. This contract is structured to handle all of them. A
single interceptor design is compatible with both land and
sea-basing.
The intercept of a missile in its boost phase has numerous
benefits:
- The boosting missile,
still under power from its rocket motor(s), is vulnerable due to
its slower speed, large cross-section and still-attached fuel
tanks.
- Also, if a missile is successfully attacked during the boost
phase, it can be destroyed prior to release of any decoys and/or
countermeasures.
- Finally, in the event of a successful intercept, the missile
and its payload of weapons of mass destruction nuclear, chemical or
biological may fall back on the country from which it was
launched.
The KEI program complements other missile defense programs now
in development and testing, and is an important element in the
United States' approach to a layered missile defense system. This
means that the objective is to develop and deploy missile defenses
that can successfully intercept and destroy ballistic missiles in
the boost phase, the midcourse phase (unpowered flight of a warhead
high in space lasting up to 20 minutes), and the terminal phase,
which is the final 30 seconds or less when the warhead is falling
back to earth towards its target, powered only by gravity.
The United States is developing, testing and preparing the
Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) to defend the United States
against long-range ballistic missile attack beginning in 2004.
Beginning in 2005, the Aegis Ballistic Missile (Sea-based
Midcourse) Defense is planned to begin defensive operations for use
against short to medium range ballistic missiles. The Army
currently operates the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 element, which
is a highly effective system for terminal phase intercept against
short-range ballistic missiles and cruise missiles.
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