Working on the defense systems and enhancing the military weaponry, the US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has collaborated with Boeing to create a new and modernized version of an interceptor capability for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system. This system enables ICBMs to be destroyed in space even earlier.
The functionality of this mechanism is described as hitting a bullet with a bullet. In some ways, this is true as well because the GMD system uses an Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV) into an incoming ballistic missile at a hypersonic speed. This renders the need for any other destruction weapon obsolete.
However, there is more to the functionality of this interceptor. It makes use of a relay of ground-based radar, early warning radar. Along with that, land- and sea-based X-band radars are also used. The system must detect, track and, gauge the ideal path for interrupting the attacking missile in space with the maximum chance of success, and then guide the interceptor to its target.
This makes it harder because the offensive side does not always attack in a predictable and regular manner. Therefore, there is a dire necessity of GMD for having more flexibility and more ability to be used in different angles than what is required mostly. This will allow only one missile to tackle multiple targets simultaneously.
At present, the United States possesses 44 interceptor missiles that are present at Fort Greely, Alaska, and Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, with another 64 on order. These missiles are equipped to handle not colossal but significant attacks from the likes of North Korea.
The GMD missile has the probability of 56 percent that it can take down the target missile in just one shot. Moreover, it has a chance of 97 percent to succeed with a salvo of four interceptors. When this technology catches pace, it will be incorporated as a component of the MDA’s Service Life Extension Program.