Missile defense targets multiple warhead missiles

CNET:

Lockheed Martin said this week it has reached an important milestone in the development of one piece of the U.S. Ballistic Missile Defense System (PDF) puzzle: an interceptor missile capable of taking out multiple enemy ICBM warheads.

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency's Multiple Kill Vehicle-L would be launched as a single interceptor equipped with a multiple-kill payload that doesn't bother with the single warhead--it goes after an entire "threat cluster" instead.

It's designed to destroy not only the enemy's re-entry vehicle (intercontinental ballistic missile) but also all the warheads it may contain, including the fake ones meant to deceive U.S. defenses.

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based defense contractor said it has calibrated the pathfinder seeker, a component that, along with in-flight targeting data, will ultimately enable the weapon to attack and destroy large numbers of objects in the threat cluster. It plans to build two operational prototype seekers, each with a state-of-the-art infrared plane array. One will be mounted on an aircraft to test missile-seeking ability in a flight environment next year; the other will be used in the laboratory to demonstrate the engagement of multiple targets.

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This is an important element of the missile defense shield. Preferably the enemy missiles should be hit during the launch phase while it is more vulnerable and before it can deploy dummy warheads. For those that get through that part of the net, this interceptor would be waiting for them. That is if Obama does not get elected and kill the program as he has promised, in which case, we would have to pray.