The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA), which is redesigning the exo-atmospheric kill vehicle that sits atop its long-range interceptor missile, held a preliminary design review for the program in late March, an MDA spokesman said April 17.
The spokesman, Christopher Johnson, declined to comment on the results of the review but said MDA is “pleased with the status of the program to date.”
The Redesigned Kill Vehicle (RKV) is intended to make the interceptor for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system more reliable against long-range ballistic missiles.
Vice Adm. James Syring, MDA’s director, told Congress last year that the RKV, which is being developed by a team of major defense firms, will incorporate “on-demand communications between the kill vehicle and the ground, a wide-field-of-view seeker, improved data processing and discrimination algorithms, and enhanced survivability.” He said MDA plans to begin flying the RKV in 2018 and conduct its first intercept attempt in 2019.
Meanwhile, GMD’s next flight test is scheduled for May, Johnson said. The test will be the system’s first attempt to shoot down an intercontinental ballistic missile.
GMD’s most recent intercept test, in which the system destroyed an intermediate-range ballistic missile target, occurred in June 2014. Boeing [BA] is GMD’s prime contractor.