Advanced Synergistic Structures for Interceptor Kill Vehicles

The next generation kill vehicles are being developed to intercept an advanced target. MDA recognizes that meeting the evolving threat will require leveraging the next generation propulsion technologies towards a synergistic kill vehicle assembly. The impact of simply adding the propulsion components into a traditional missile structure is a KV assembly with redundant structures, as was shown on both the THAAD and EKV systems. While the low-toxicity liquid divert and attitude control systems (LDACS) technologies have reached a technology readiness level (TRL) 4, it has been done without consideration of flight weight fuel storage tanks and without consideration of how the propulsion components fit with the KV structural backbone. The process of synergizing the LDACS propulsion with the composite KV structure early in the development phase will provide MDA with a mass and volume optimized solution for consideration by next generation KV programs. The objectives of this SBIR proposal were designed to achieve a TRL 5 (at the end of Phase II) by integrating the LDACS components into prototypical hardware so that the subsystem can be tested in a simulated environment. SDC has teamed with an industry leader in the LDACS technology for next generation MDA interceptors.