US defense companies General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) and Boeing Missile and Weapon Systems have entered into a partnership agreement to participate in a government tender for the development of a next-generation NGI (Next-Generation Interceptor) kinetic interceptor, according to the GA-EMS website.
It is assumed that this product will be installed as a warhead on ground-based silo-based missiles GBI, designed to protect the United States from strikes of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).
Currently, these missile defense systems are deployed at Fort Greeley (Alaska) and at Vandenberg Air Force Base (California).
“We are delighted to announce a partnership with Boeing to develop the revolutionary technologies needed to help the US Missile Defense Agency rapidly deploy an interceptor system that will strengthen the country's missile defense system and ensure that the United States, our allies and partner countries will maintain military superiority in the face of the ever-changing threat from adversaries, ”the GA-EMS press service quotes company president Scott Forney.
GA-EMS and Boeing are going to compete for a contract with the US Missile Defense Agency, which expects to receive a new generation interceptor from the country's military industry.
Launch of the American ground anti-missile GBI
© boeing.com
According to Defense News, the partners of these companies will be Aerojet Rocketdyne, which specializes in the development of rocket engines.
The rivals of these three enterprises are a merger of Northrop Grumman and Raytheon, as well as Lockheed Martin.
Leading American companies plan to take part in the tender, which the Missile Defense Agency announced at the end of April this year.
It is planned to allocate $ 4.9 billion for the implementation of the project within five years, of which $ 664.1 million - in 2021.
The Pentagon intends to first select two projects and allocate money for development, and then choose the best product.
Against hypersound
Currently, GBI is equipped with kinetic interceptors of the EKV (Exo-atmospheric Kill Vehicle) family.
They are a guided projectile devoid of explosives that strikes a ballistic target with a direct hit.
EKV weight - about 64 kg, length - 1.4 m, diameter - 0.6 m.
In order to improve the characteristics of the warhead of the interceptor missiles, the Pentagon in 2010 launched a project to create a new interceptor, designated RKV (Redesigned Kill Vehicle).
Boeing was chosen as the contractor for the contract, which received $ 1.2 billion from the budget.
However, in the summer of 2019, Michael Griffin, who was then the US Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Development, announced the termination of work on the RKV.
This decision was made due to the technical difficulties encountered by Boeing, which thwarted the time frame for creating the product.
Meanwhile, the company announced its readiness to fight for a new tender for the development of a similar complex of the next generation.
In February 2020, commenting to reporters on the situation with the finances spent on the failed development of the RKV, the director of the Missile Defense Agency Rear Admiral John Hill said that the US military has learned many lessons from this failed initiative.
Along with the RKV, the Pentagon oversees another project of a promising kinetic interceptor, dubbed MOKV (Multi-Object Kill Vehicle).
The development of this product started within the walls of Lockheed Martin in the first half of the 2000s, but was suspended for a while.
The principle of operation of MOKV is based on the fact that each GBI will carry a set of several interceptors, which, using special sensors, will be able to correct their flight and hit the warheads of ICBMs.
Each item weighs approximately 10 pounds (4.5 kg).
On December 2, 2008, the MOKV prototype was tested at a training ground near Edwards Air Force Base (California), but the next year the project was closed by order of Defense Secretary Robert Gates (he held a post in 2006-2011).
In 2015, the Pentagon resumed the MOKV project.
The creation of the interceptor was commissioned by the military to Raytheon, which is the supplier of Standard Missile (SM) naval interceptors.
Specialists from Lockheed Martin and Boeing also took part in the work.
However, in recent years, no reports have appeared in the media about any results in the field of creating MOKV.
Experts believe that the Pentagon requires leading national arms corporations to solve an extremely complex technical problem.
“The current capabilities of the US missile defense system make it possible to cope well with the interception of foreign ballistic missiles and the domestic Topol complex, which is being replaced in our Strategic Missile Forces regiments by Yars.
However, the Americans have nothing against modern and promising nuclear missiles of Russia yet, "Yuri Knutov, director of the Air Defense Museum in Balashikha, explained in an interview with RT.
Schematic illustration of the principle of operation of the MOKV (Multi-Object Kill Vehicle) interceptor
© PRNewsFoto / Raytheon Company
From the expert's point of view, in order to significantly increase the efficiency of intercepting ballistic targets with anti-ballistic missiles, the US Department of Defense is trying to implement several projects in parallel, sparing no budget funding for them.
At the same time, as the expert predicts, the creation of NGI may well turn into another failure.
“In my opinion, modern and promising American interceptors have insufficient speed to destroy blocks of Russian missiles and there is no locator that could track the movement of maneuvering targets.
At the same time, Russia, somewhere in part, and somewhere completely solved these problems.
Under these conditions, the Americans feel that they are lagging behind and are trying to find options to catch up with or outstrip our country, ”Knutov said.
In a commentary on RT, Dmitry Litovkin, editor of Independent Military Review, also said that the activities of leading American defense companies are aimed at creating systems capable of intercepting warheads of Russian ICBMs, as well as missiles flying at hypersonic speeds.
"Nobody in the world has such a weapon"
As the experts recalled, work to strengthen the ground component of the US missile defense and the creation of interceptors for ballistic targets began almost immediately after Washington's unilateral withdrawal in 2002 from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM).
The American leadership called the threat from Iran and the DPRK as the reason for denouncing the agreement.
However, as noted by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Washington's actions eliminated the strategic balance with Russia that had developed since the Cold War and in the long term could "zero" the Russian nuclear potential.
The work on promising anti-missile weapons launched overseas forced Moscow to initiate in response the development of new strike systems, including hypersonic weapons.
As Vladimir Putin said on September 19, 2020, in an interview with one of the developers of the Avandgard complex, Herbert Efremov, the result of the activities of Russian designers was the emergence of unique types of weapons that have no analogues in the world.
“And now, for the first time in our modern history, Russia possesses the most modern types of weapons, which are many times superior in strength, power, speed, which is very important, in accuracy of all that existed and exist today.
No one in the world has such a weapon, at least not yet, ”Putin said.
Among the most advanced destruction systems, the President of the Russian Federation attributed the Avangard hypersonic unit, the Burevestnik cruise missile of unlimited range, the Peresvet laser complex, the Kh-47M2 Kinzhal aviation hypersonic missile, the Zircon sea-based ammunition and a robotic underwater drone with nuclear engine "Poseidon".
Dmitry Litovkin believes that in the short and medium term, the United States will not have missile defense systems capable of effectively intercepting hypersonic targets, including Russian-made ones.
“Russia made an absolutely correct proactive move, launching in the 2000s the development of new hypersonic products and ICBMs.
The characteristics of our newest weapons are such that not a single missile defense system, including promising models, will be an obstacle, especially for the Avangard block maneuvering at hypersonic speed, ”Litovkin summed up.