An Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle, developed by Raytheon, an RTX business, successfully destroyed an Intermediate-Range Ballistic Missile during a recent test of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense System. The test was conducted today in the Pacific region by the U.S. Missile Defense Agency and the U.S. Northern Command.
This was the 13th intercept for the program, which protects the U.S. by destroying incoming ballistic missiles while they are outside the Earth’s atmosphere.
“This test demonstrates that the U.S. ballistic missile defense system is operational, reliable and ready to protect the country,” said Wes Kremer, president of Raytheon. “Raytheon kill vehicles have now successfully completed nearly 50 space intercepts, which underscores our expertise and ability to design and develop these systems to defeat the evolving threat.”
With more than 30-years of experience in developing advanced interceptors and sensors, Raytheon is the leading provider of missile defense capabilities. This test further validates Raytheon’s expertise in supporting the Missile Defense Agency’s current fleet of ballistic missile defense sensors and interceptors. Raytheon is currently developing the next evolution of ballistic missile interceptors and kill vehicles that will provide warfighters with a more robust missile defense capability against current and future threats.
Raytheon’s EKV is developed in Tucson, Arizona and the AN/TPY-2 and X-Band Radar are developed in Andover, Massachusetts.