Lockheed Martin Team Conducts Free-Flight Hover Test of MDA

Lockheed Martin Team Conducts Free-Flight Hover Test of MDA

money.cnn.com

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif., Dec. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) announced today 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.

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
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When I first saw this video I was extremely skeptical and I still think it might be CGI... see additional links for videos of the MKD-L in action. I found the CNN article after seeing the video which lends a bit more credibility to it, but it still seems way too futuristic to be real.

What does everyone here think?

money.cnn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Edit:

Additional article from Lockheed directly links video with press release

Additional mention by US Department of Defense

[edit on 12/12/2008 by Yarcofin]

Wow... chitty chitty death bang. No anti gravity propulsion there thats for sure.

doesn't stay up very long.
Propulsion technology probably limits functionality at this stage.
Did it just run out of fuel?

It does seem kind of limited. I think it's designed for missile defense, but to me the function seems more suited for being a booby-trap or something like that. Set one of these things down behind a bush somewhere and give it a way to sense that someone is coming, it could pop up and shoot for 10-20 seconds and wipe out a whole row of people.

reply to post by Yarcofin

that would certainly be in tune with its name:
Multi Kill Vehicle/Device
I suppose you could add the word "Indiscriminate" to the beginning of its name; at least with regard to the booby-trap idea.

I really dont see this as a major advancement. They are only showing hovering and moving capability. Id think we would have had thrusters capable of this after they figured out how to make a rocket pack.

reply to post by prevenge


Meaning I find CNN more reliable of a source than a blog or jj.am. If you have ever been to the latter and still want to laugh at me, that's your problem. lol.

real noisy device

no practical use in its current state, targets will hear you coming from miles away...

another distraction to keep people from thinking we dont have better technology yet...

Looks good to me... Hop in!

If this is seriously their attempt at hovering then all I have to say is bad job.

Why not just build a small helicopter that doesn't look like its going to explode and shoots flames everywhere? Is the jet propulsion really necessary?

Why is this not done using turbines? The flames seriously make it look like a floating pipe-bomb or something of the sort.

After reading the above posts its obvious that no one read the article except a few. It was the first test of the hover propulsion system meaning that its an early prototype. Also, the device is for missile defense. It is designed to be able to weave through dummy missiles and decoys to locate the real warhead. Read

I read it.
fingers in pies. This company are also in charge of the next UK census.
perhaps they should stick to that - seems like any other tenders for the job probably met the death kill multi mutilator thing as they pretty much have the job sewn up.

do they sell fruit & veg as well?

Would be hilarious to set one off accidentally.



The future is great.

Hey Guys,
The hover test is a standard practice in the missile defense business for developmental kill vehicles. It wrings out many of the possible failure modes of the high-tech item before actually having to do a space test, which is VERY costly. The MKV is designed to track a threat "cloud" composed of real warheads and decoys (from an enemy ICBM); sort out what it can (with aids from other sources such as ground radar), then direct one of the KVs (kill vehicles) toward everything that can't positively be identified as a decoy. There are many differences between a hover test and a real space test (obviously you don't "hover" in space, e.g.), but still there are enough things that can be tested (the vibration and shock-sensitive components and processes), most decision-makers feel they are worthwhile.
Regards

reply to post by David606

most decision-makers feel they are worthwhile

This one said "come on lil chainey lets go and take a look at that murder death kill vehicle, I told my dad I want one for christmas ya know like in ma stocking" I want to be a decision maker"! "lil condi can you get me one that's remote control operated?










[edit on 13-12-2008 by alyosha1981]

Could some people a the very least, bother to read the first paragraph of the article.

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif., Dec. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) announced today 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.

money.cnn.com...

...Because obviously helicopters can travel at Mach 5 hitting objects going Mach 10 or above. And obviously missiles have ears yet can still hear it when the kill vehicle itself is going faster than sound itself. CHRIST.



www.lockheedmartin.com...

The video is from the U.S. Missile Defense Agency/U.S. Air Force.

[edit on 13/12/2008 by C0bzz]

Thank you C0bzz for reading the article too. Its nice to see some people still actually read entire articles instead of what they just want to read. People see the name multiple kill vehicle and think that the MKV-L is used to mutilate people and not missiles and then dont bother to read what it actually does.

OK I remember seeing this in the 80's It was part of a press release regarding SDI back when Reagan was president and they are now showing a test date of 2008?

What gives?

Imagine what they are testing that is not 20+ year old technology!

I found it check the date 1989