Friday, September 05, 2008

CKEM

IOC: 2008
Total Program's Cost: USD$82 million

Also Known As: Compact Kinetic Energy Missile

Origin:United States of America

Contractor/s: ATK Alliant Techsystems, Lockheed Martin

Description: The Compact Kinetic Energy Missile (CKEM) is under development to provide with the next generation hypervelocity anti-tank missile capability to the US Army infantry companies. The CKEM will feature fire and forget capability, enhanced first kill probability and extended range to defeat any armored target in the line-of-sight.

The US Army plans to field the CKEM anti-tank weapon system within the Stryker brigades and FCS companies. It carries no explosive warhead, defeating its target solely through the force of impact.

In early June 2004, the US Army selected Lockheed-Martin for CKEMs development and production with an estimated entry into service date scheduled for 2008. Lockheed-Martin's team members in the CKEM program are: ATK, Honeywell, EaglePicher and Haigh-Farr.

CKEM production line will be established at Lockheed-Martin's Horizon City facilities in El Paso, Texas. The ATACMS missile family assembly line is also located at Horizon City. The CKEM missile features the same technologies developed for current LOSAT kinetic energy missile program.

The flight test program which started in October 2003, is being carried out at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. As of November 2004, the test program has conducted two flight demonstrations checking out weapon components through free flight trajectories with no planned target impact. CKEM hypervelocity missile has demonstrated that can fly up to 10 kilometers on its kinetic energy. The weapon will enter SDD (System Development and Demonstration) phase in the fall of 2006.

Specifications
Dimensions: Length 1,520 mm

Weights: Max Weight 45.4 kg (100 lb)

Performance: Max Range 10,000 m (32,808 ft)

News
CKEM Successfully Completes Final Flight Test

CKEM Tested Successfully Against an Armored Target

Lockheed-Martin Wins CKEM Program

First CKEM Flight Test Completed Successfully

Notes
(*) lead contractor
IOC: Initial Operating Capability
FOC: Full Operating Capability
CEP: Circular Error Probable
Comm: Commissioning Date
Meters (m) Kilometers (km) Nautic Miles (nm) Inch (in) Yard (yd) Foot (ft) Millimeter (mm)
Pound (lb) Kilogram (kg) kN (KiloNewton) Ton (t)
Meters per Second (mps) Kilometers per Hour (kph) Knot (kt) Miles per Hour (mph)
Liter (l) Galon (gl)
Year (yr) Minutes (min) Second (sec)
Shaft-Horse-Power (shp)

Last Updated: Sunday, August 24, 2008

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