Lockheed Martin opens missile seeker lab
Lockheed Martin has opened a new laboratory in Silicon Valley for the development of next-generation seekers for the US Missile Defense Agency, as announced by the company on 30 April.
The lab will develop next-generation seekers to defend against increasingly complex missile threats. Seekers perform an essential role for a kill vehicle, which is the part of an interceptor that strikes an incoming missile.
Doug Graham, vice president of missile systems and advanced programmes, Lockheed Martin Space Systems, said: ‘The technology we will develop and demonstrate in this laboratory is important because a seeker is the on-board eyes for a missile defence interceptor, and it must perform with perfect 20/20 vision in the final moments before interception.
‘This facility is part of Lockheed Martin’s commitment to research, development and innovation to advance technologies for missile defence.’
The seeker locates and tracks the enemy warhead and sends trajectory data to the on-board guidance system, which steers the kill vehicle to destroy the warhead. A seeker includes infrared sensors, a telescope and a cryostat to cool the sensors during launch.
All major US missile defence systems use the hit-to-kill force-of-impact technology pioneered by Lockheed Martin’s Sunnyvale facility.
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