Raytheon EKV intercept of ICBM

ARaytheon upgraded Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle, or EKV, a kinetic-force weapon that slams into its targets, destroyed an intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time during a Missile Defence Agency test of the Ground-based Midcourse Defence system. It was the tenth intercept for the GMD programme, which is

designed to protect the US against long-range ballistic missile attacks by destroying incoming threats while they are still in space, well outside outside the Earth’s atmosphere. A world leader in kill vehicle design and production, Raytheon is simultaneously managing four kill vehicle programmes : the EKV, Standard Missile-3 kinetic vehicle, Redesigned Kill Vehicle and Multi-Object Kill Vehicle. The Raytheon Kill Vehicle family has now achieved more than 40 successful space intercepts.