Comments on: Interceptor missile to take on ICBMs
Defense contractor Lockheed Martin is getting ready to test an interceptor missile plainly dubbed the Multiple Kill Vehicle.
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- by Jurph May 25, 2008 11:38 AM PDT
- Mark, a few corrections about your terminology.
- Like this Reply to this comment
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(3 Comments)"Payload" is everything the enemy missile has loaded on the front end. This includes any post-boost vehicle, any countermeasures, and any reentry vehicles. All missiles carry some payload. A benefit of MKV is that you don't have to discriminate between the RV and the countermeasures -- you just kill anything that moves.
"Reentry Vehicles" are the long cone-shaped objects designed to re-enter the atmosphere. Any missile that leaves the atmosphere (almost all of them!) and separates its payload form the booster will have at least one reentry vehicle, or possibly more. The "possibly more" part is another benefit of MKV: whether the enemy deploys 1,2,3, or more RVs, MKV should be able to hit all of them.
"Warhead" is the explosive (or nuclear) device inside the reentry vehicle. Only the Russians refer to the entire payload as a warhead, due to a quirk of their language, and since the START treaty they've used the term "front section" instead.
So your sentence "t's designed to destroy not only the enemy's re-entry vehicle (intercontinental ballistic missile) but also all the warheads it may contain, including the fake ones meant to deceive U.S. defenses" would be better written as follows.
[MKV] is designed to destroy the enemy's entire ICBM payload: not just the reentry vehicles and their warheads, but also any decoys or countermeasures meant to deceive US defenses.