Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne, a United Technologies Corp. company, announced Monday it has won a $12 million contract from the U.S. Missile Defense Agency for the first phase of a contract "to design, build, integrate, and test a prototype Divert and Attitude Control System -- DACS -- that will power two different types of kinetic vehicles on missile interceptors."

Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne described the Commonality Pathfinder DACS as an element of the Multiple Kill Vehicle program that would give the agency the capability to carry out controlled-flight hover tests on its two kinetic vehicles. "The Pathfinder DACS will use existing Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne propulsion system technology, which will significantly lower development risk, cost and time," the company said.

"The Pathfinder DACS will allow the Missile Defense Agency to test the avionics, software and sensor capabilities of the kinetic vehicles, simulating the conditions of flight and demonstrating its ability to seek and destroy incoming ballistic missile targets," said Bruce Janeski, MKV Commonality Pathfinder program manager, Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne.

Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne said the Pathfinder DACS would be equipped with a high-precision propulsion system capable of propelling kinetic vehicles into a position where they could intercept and shoot down many incoming ballistic missiles, even if these were equipped with countermeasures.

The company said the Pathfinder DACS prototype would be tested for the first time in the middle of 2010 and hover tests on the two kinetic vehicle designs were planned to start in 2011. All those tests would be performed at the National Hover Test Facility at Edwards Air Force Base in California.