Lockheed Martin has secured a $2.6 million contract to advance the Miniature Hit-to-Kill (MHTK) interceptor project.
Army Cruise Missile Defense Systems Project Office officials said the agency awarded the contract as a means of evaluating the project’s effectiveness and manufacturing readiness as part of the Extended Mission Area Missile Program.
“This award brings us one step closer to addressing a top battlefield priority – having an effective and cost-efficient solution to defeat rockets, artillery, mortars and other airborne targets,” Hal Stuart, Force Protection program manager at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, said.
The MHTK missile is designed to defeat rocket, artillery and mortar targets through body-to-body contact, without a warhead, at ranges projected to exceed those of current and interim systems.
The compact nature of the weapon, which is just under two and a half feet in diameter and weighs about five pounds at launch, allows multiple rounds to be packaged in a minimal footprint to combat complex threat situations like saturation attacks effectively.
The MHTK interceptor complements the Lockheed Martin family of Hit-to-Kill missile interceptors by delivering close range lethality with proven success for truly layered defense.
The MHTK underwent a controlled flight test at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, in January demonstrating increased agility and validated performance of the airframe and electronics, which are now common between MHTK’s two configurations to drive affordability.