Read the full piece in the National Defense here.
There are currently several types in the fleet — and while they are slated to be replaced with the redesigned kill vehicle — this will take several years and present a variety of challenges, said Philip Coyle, senior science fellow at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.
Another system that is in its early development is the multi-object kill vehicle, which would house several kill vehicles in one missile to maximize the success of hitting an incoming missile, especially one that has deployed decoys. However, achieving such a fully deployable system will require solving a variety of challenging engineering and science problems, Coyle said.
Unifying the redesigned kill vehicles and developing and deploying the multi-object version into the missile defense system may mean the program will be in a state of flux for years to come, Coyle added.
