WASHINGTON, April 20 (UPI) -- The United States and Japan will be signing an agreement soon to upgrade the SM-3 interceptor used in the Aegis missile defense system.
Raytheon said Thursday it expected to be involved in the $2 billion project that will install a Japanese-designed "clamshell" nosecone on the SM-3 that should make the interceptor more accurate.
A formal announcement had yet to be made on Thursday pending the actual signing of the agreement.
The nosecone, which was integrated on the SM-3, Standard Missile-3 by Raytheon, was successfully tested last month from the Aegis cruiser USS Lake Erie off the coast of Hawaii. Both the U.S. and Japanese navies have Aegis cruisers or destroyers in their fleets.
The SM-3 launched in March contained an instrument package that was successfully deployed when the clamshell nosecone opened as designed and took measurements of the temperatures and shock experienced as the third stage of the missile separated and closed in on the simulated target.
The "kill vehicle" interceptor is a kinetic warhead designed to take out an incoming ballistic missile outside Earth's atmosphere with a direct hit, a difficult task to achieve but more certain of registering a kill than a localized explosion. The interceptor is guided by an infrared seeker.
Deploying the interceptor from the clamshell nose cone eliminates the need for the SM-3 itself to perform a series of in-flight maneuvers before the kill vehicle is released, thereby increasing the efficiency of the high-stakes mission.
The SM-3 is the largest rocket that can fit in the standard Mk 41 launcher aboard Aegis cruisers and destroyers, including the Lake Erie and its sister ships and the Japanese Kongo-class destroyer that would make up the front-line of Japan's maritime missile-defense system.
Japan became interested in missile defense in the late 1990s as North Korea developed ballistic vehicles capable of dropping weapons of mass destruction on Japan.
The upgraded SM-3 is being developed by prime contractor Raytheon and is expected to be ready for deployment around 2014.
