Raytheon Company, MCKINNEY, Texas: Raytheon Company's new Quick Kill System is the first active protection system (APS) to destroy a rocket propelled grenade (RPG) at close range, using a precision launched warhead with a focused blast. The successful test occurred at a New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology test center Feb. 7, 2006.
Quick Kill is a new “hit avoidance” system designed by Raytheon to protect combat vehicles and their warfighters from enemy fire. It destroys enemy weapons with speed, surgical accuracy and minimal collateral damage. The system is capable of instantly engaging projectiles fired from any location around or above the vehicle.
The test featured an RPG launched at close range, simulating an engagement of a Stryker combat vehicle equipped with Raytheon's Quick Kill system. The Quick Kill's active electronically scanned array radar detected and tracked the RPG and — after computing its speed, trajectory and intercept point — cued the precision-launched weapon to counterattack and destroy the RPG with its focused blast warhead. The weapon performed a vertical “soft launch,” pitched over, accelerated to the point of intercept, fired its warhead and destroyed the RPG in mid-air. All of this occurred in the proverbial blink of an eye.
Raytheon's approach to this technological breakthrough is equivalent to firing a weapon around a corner and hitting another weapon, while both speed through the air at hundreds of meters per second. Raytheon is the first company to develop and then prove this concept of engagement by successfully intercepting an RPG at close range.
“Quick Kill's speed, precision and effectiveness are truly amazing,” said Glynn Raymer, vice president of Raytheon Combat Systems. “It offers our current force warfighters a level of battlefield protection that no one has ever seen before.”
“We wanted to prove the APS technology as quickly as possible and accelerate its fielding to warfighters,” said Johnny Garrett, director of Raytheon Integrated Systems. “Using our own money, Raytheon took Quick Kill from concept to reality in fewer than six months.”
Raytheon Company, with 2005 sales of $21.9 billion, is an industry leader in defense and government electronics, space, information technology, technical services, and business and special mission aircraft. With headquarters in Waltham, Mass., Raytheon employs 80,000 people worldwide.
Background Notes and Information:
–Quick Kill's end-to-end testing occurred at the Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center, at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology near Socorro, N.M.
–“Soft launch” is a technique in which a weapon — in this case a small missile — launches vertically from the combat vehicle, pitches over, is propelled by its rocket motor and then fires its weapon. The radar system sends threat track data to the weapon and enables surgically precise target destruction. A soft launch eliminates concussion of the vehicle and the troops inside it.
–RPGs are a major threat to U.S. troops and vehicles in Iraq and Afghanistan; Quick Kill's active protection addresses the problem. Its modular design facilitates installation on current U.S. Army platforms such as Stryker Brigade Combat Team vehicles and on future Army vehicles.
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