Lockheed Martin has received a $53 million technology risk reduction contract to improve seekers, avionics, and system integration for the Multi-Object Kill Vehicle (MKV), the Missile Defense Agency announced on March 9. MKV is a ballistic missile defense system carried on board an interceptor missile and is designed to destroy multiple incoming missiles, including decoys, at the same time. The MKV development program was active in the mid-2000s but was delayed in 2009 when then-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates reshaped the Pentagon budget and cut funding for missile defense programs. But in 2015, Boeing, Raytheon, and Lockheed were each given $9 million proof-of-concept contracts. Raytheon already built the Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle, which is part of the Ground-Based Interceptor system deployed in 2010. The EKV has successfully demonstrated its ability to destroy a single ballistic missile in three ground-based launch tests.
The Space Development Agency says it’s on track to issue its next batch of missile warning and tracking satellite contracts this month after those awards were delayed by the Pentagon’s decision to divert funds from the agency to pay troops during this fall’s prolonged government shutdown.
