Missile Defense Cooperation

How It Works

Audio

A missile launch is first detected by an early warning satellite of the type that has provided missile early warning for several decades.  Basic information regarding missile trajectory and type of missile is relayed to the North American Aerospace Defense (NORAD) operations center.  Ground-based early warning radars then track the missile and provide additional information about the missile to the command center.  A ground-based X-band radar, like the one that would be built in the Czech Republic, will then gather more precise target tracking information and this information is transmitted to the ground-based interceptor missile.  An interceptor is launched, and receives additional targeting information while in flight. 

A small "kill vehicle" containing a package of advanced sensors and electronics separates from the main rocket motors and uses its on-board rockets to place it in the path of the target warhead more than 100 km in space.  The "kill vehicle" then proceeds to collide directly with the target warhead, using only the force of direct collision to destroy the target warhead high in space and hundreds, perhaps thousands, of kilometers from the interceptor launch site.  Since the intercept occurs so high in space and so far away from the interceptor launch site, debris from the intercept is unlikely to fall to earth.  The action depicted here takes place occurs within a 20-minute time span.