WASHINGTON, Jan. 7 (UPI) -- Lockheed Martin says Wednesday it won a $760 million, eight-year contract to develop a new kill vehicle for the Army's missile defense intercept system.
The kill vehicle will actually house multiple small missile hunters that would be released from a single launch vehicle but be able to go after multiple enemy warheads and decoys.
The Bush administration plans to deploy a ground-based missile intercept program at the end of 2004, but the new mini-kill vehicle would not be ready for at least eight years.
The missile interceptor program involves a complex series of satellites and radars detecting an incoming enemy long-range ballistic missile and then triggering the launch of interceptors.
The interceptors would race to meet the enemy missile in outer space and release a kill vehicle, which would slam into the warhead, disintegrating it on contact.
While carefully controlled tests have been successful, critics of the multibillion-dollar program charge the system would be overwhelmed by multiple incoming missiles or missiles that employ decoys or countermeasures.
The Pentagon will spend about $9 billion on missile defenses in 2004.
