Lockheed Martin has announced that its team successfully conducted a free-flight hover test of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency's Multiple Kill Vehicle-L. Conducted Dec. 2 at the National Hover Test Facility at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., the test met all objectives.

During an engagement with the enemy, the MKV-L with its cargo of kill vehicles will maneuver into the threat complex to intercept all lethal targets, along with any countermeasures the enemy may deploy in an attempt to trick the system. With tracking data from the Ballistic Missile Defense System and its own seeker, the MKV-L will dispense and guide the kill vehicles to destroy multiple targets.

The full-scale prototype flew at an altitude of approximately 23 feet (7 meters) for 20 seconds, maneuvering while simultaneously tracking a target.

"This test demonstrated the integrated operation of the MKV-L in near-earth flight," said Rick Reginato, Multiple Kill Vehicle program director, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company. "This represents a major step forward for the earliest operational payload designed to destroy multiple threat objects with a single missile defense interceptor."

The test was the first of several to prove MKV readiness for complex flight testing aboard the Ballistic Missile Defense System's ground-based interceptor currently deployed in Alaska and Southern California.

"Testing the payload in the ground-based, controlled flight environment at the National Hover Test Facility enables us to verify interoperation of components and subsystems as they are incrementally developed and integrated," said Randy Riley, MKV-L Hover Test Bed program director, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company.