Video: Missile Kill Vehicle Is Impressive, Scary
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Tuesday, 9 of December , 2008 at 4:46 am
First let me say that the thing you’re about to see is designed to keep you safe, even though it totally doesn’t look like it. Lockheed Martin’s Multiple Kill Vehicle is a system designed to intercept and destroy incoming ballistic missiles, the more advanced of which now come with a whole fleet of decoy warheads. The MKV-L autonomously maneuvers through the decoys and releases smaller destroyer vehicles to deal with whatever it decides is dangerous. The impressive part is the autonomous tracking and maneuvering, which you can see in the video below:
It doesn’t seem like this thing should be able achieve a rock solid hover under just rocket power. Like, it’s creepily stable. My guess is that it’s got some kind of super sensitive inertial measurement unit (one that works in zero g) that is uses to compensate for any unwanted motion, including (in this case) the downward one caused by gravity.
See it hovering from a few different angles in another video, after the jump.
[ Missile Defense Agency (PDF) ] VIA [ Engadget ]
Comments (2)
Category: Military, Research, Space
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Comment by Ironman
Made Tuesday, 9 of December , 2008 at 10:29 am
that sir, is super intense.
Comment by Ironman
Made Tuesday, 9 of December , 2008 at 2:20 pm
now, just put a person in a suite and you have iron man
sickkkkkkkkkk