Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle

Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle

Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV) can refer to two related missile defense concepts:

• Most common: the Raytheon-manufactured interceptor component with subcontractor Aerojet of the U.S. Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD), part of the larger National Missile Defense system.
• Any exoatmospheric (outside the atmosphere) kinetic kill interceptor.

The Raytheon EKV is launched by the Ground Based Interceptor (GBI) missile, the launch vehicle of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense System. The EKV's own rockets and fuel are for corrections in the trajectory, not for further acceleration.

An EKV is boosted to an intercept trajectory by a boost vehicle (missile), where it separates from the boost vehicle and autonomously collides with an incoming warhead. EKV devices appear in both ground and ship based missile defense systems.