Video – Lockheed CKEM Kinetic Energy Missile in Action

If you’re designing a missile with the intentions of taking out armoured vehicles or any hardened target then, as far as inflicting the required damage is concerned, you have two potential avenues open to you. You can either pack in a warhead with enough destructive power to do the job or you can hit the target at such an extreme velocity that pure kinetic energy is all that’s required.

There are, as with all things in life, pros and cons concerning each of these methods of gaining a kill. Firstly, using an explosive charge adds weight to the projectile but if pin-point accuracy cannot be assured then all you have to ensure is that the target is within the weapon’s blast radius, and the bigger this radius the less the accuracy required. A good example of this would be the experimentations with air burst nuclear anti-aircraft missiles in the late 50’s and 60’s (which just needed to be in the general area to wipe out an entire squadron of aircraft). It was crude, but it worked.

Conversely, in using pure kinetic energy alone, Lockheed’s CKEM (Compact Kinetic Energy Missile) needs to be extremely accurate in order to achieve a kill and, not only that, it needs to travel as such a speed that its kinetic energy alone has enough destructive power to decommission whatever it hits. And it is this level of accuracy that is, in itself, quite astonishing as the CKEM can hit something up to five miles away with pin point accuracy whilst flying at speeds of over Mach 6.5.

Let’s put that into stark perspective. Mach 1 is defined as being the speed at which sound travels through the air which is roughly 330 m/s or 760 mph at sea level. So, at Mach 6.5 the missile is travelling at a rate of 2145 m/s or 4940 mph / 7949 kph.

And, on that premise, as you can imagine, the following video of Lockheed’s astounding CKEM Missile (also known as the LOSAT - Line of Sight Anti Tank missile), which measures a mere 60 inches in length and weighs in at less than 100 pounds, being tested is as impressive as it is brief.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCmSs6hXWoU]

Further details can be obtained from Lockheed’s Official Site or you can download a PDF media card concerning the CKEM directly from Lockheed via this link.

[Via]