Lodamun

[imperialpearl]

Carthorn unveils 'Hit-to-Kill' missile for SDA Interceptor project

ⓘ: Carthorn's schematics for the High-Altitude Interceptor's Hit-to-Kill missile

Carthorn, the Lodamese aerospace defence company which has been subcontracted to work alongside the Armed Forces Projects Agency and the Strategic Defence Agency on the development of an air defence system to destroy ballistic missile in their terminal phase, has unveiled information regarding its interceptor missile design. Leonard Malone, a senior marketing executive at Carthorn spoke at length regarding the missile at the Williamson Institute’s biannual defence expo held in Portswood. In a series of interviews, Malone spoke to the significant of the development, highlighting that the creation of a “hit-to-kill”, vehicle represents a major advancement for Lodamese aerospace defence and ultimately brings the nation closer towards realising its ambitions against ballistic missiles of all variants and ranges. HAI (High-Altitude Interceptor) as the platform has been coined by the SDA is supposed to exist as a step above the existing Guardian multi-role air defence system. Conceptually, HAI is being designed as a purely anti-ballistic missile interceptor, a major departure from the traditional policy of developing multi-role systems, as evidenced by Guardian which apart from its capabilities as a short-range anti-ballistic missile defence system, can also act as a capable general air defence platform, capable of downing aircraft and other airborne threats. In arguing the system’s benefits before the Armed Forces Appropriation Committee of the Senate, SDA Director Admiral Alan Casey, stated that the rationale behind specifying HAI as a purely ABM system comes in view of Guardian’s pitfalls, as he argues, “Jack of all trades is a master of none.” A major critique which had arisen during the SDA’s redevelopment of the nation’s Guardian batteries rested on the idea that being capable of countering various airborne threats meant that the system could not meet its optimal performance, as it was always limited by specifications/requirements in its other responsibilities.

Malone discussed the general design and functioning of the HAI missile, explaining that compared to conventional missiles, which often operated with an explosive warhead, HAI relied on a “hit-to-kill” mechanism. This means that in the absence of an explosive warhead which might destroy targets from the sheer strength of the blast, the missile is designed to collide directly with the target. The missile is composed of a combat unit and a motor, with the latter being the means by which the missile is launched and the former being the means by which the missile destroys a target. “The missile is initially launched against a detected threat, once it reaches the outer atmosphere, the motor is detached and the kill vehicle continues on its trajectory. The Kill Vehicle possess a Divert and Attitude Control System (DACS) which via the use of boosters firing in various directions, enables it to make micro-adjustments to its flight level. Just the sheer kinetic energy of the kill vehicle colliding with the target ought to be enough to destroy it,” Malone said, explaining the mechanics behind the HAI missile. In fielding questions on why the company had chosen a kill vehicle as opposed to an explosive warhead, Malone explained that a kill vehicle, by physically pulverising the target through sheer force of impact prevented any uncontrolled detonation of materials. He added that since the platform would be primarily destroyed against intermediate-range ballistic missiles and potentially hypersonic missiles which could be armed with chemical, biological or nuclear warheads, a strike against the target which renders its warhead/payload inert was ultimately preferred. Work on the kill vehicle, particularly its DACS had been informed by research conducted by scientists working for the Lodamese Space Administration, during the infancy of the agency’s satellite program, as LSA satellites use the same technology to adjust their orbit.

In a statement issued earlier this week, Carthorn executives pointed to some of the advancements being made in the development of a new radar for the HAI platform. They noted that the SA/TPX-78 radar currently employed on most Guardian air defence batteries was incapable of dealing with the types of threats HAI would be likely be employed to respond to. SA/TPX-78 is primarily rated for low altitude threats, granted that HAI would likely be facing high-altitude threats, the company had been instructed by the AFPA and the SDA to begin work on a new high-altitude radar. In conjunction with the Joint Aerospace Defense Coordination System (JADC), a plug-and-play network designed to seamlessly link various defence sensors including radar, to other available platforms, allowing real-time data sharing across a defence network, Carthorn executives believe that their proposed SA/TPX-82, which is being engineered to detect longer-range threats, discrimination between targets and noise, and cue the Guardian’s radars to incoming threats, might be the solution moving forward.