The Compact Kinetic Energy Missile (CKEM) was a developmental program to produce a

hypersonic In aerodynamics, a hypersonic speed is one that exceeds 5 times the speed of sound, often stated as starting at speeds of Mach 5 and above. The precise Mach number at which a craft can be said to be flying at hypersonic speed varies, since ind ...

anti-tank guided missile An anti-tank guided missile (ATGM), anti-tank missile, anti-tank guided weapon (ATGW) or anti-armor guided weapon is a guided missile primarily designed to hit and destroy heavily armored military vehicles. ATGMs range in size from shoulder ...

for the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American aerospace, arms, defense, information security, and technology corporation with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It ...

was the primary contractor. The program was the third in a series of projects based on

kinetic energy In physics, the kinetic energy of an object is the energy that it possesses due to its motion. It is defined as the work needed to accelerate a body of a given mass from rest to its stated velocity. Having gained this energy during its acce ...

missiles that stretches back to 1981's

Vought HVM {{no footnotes, date=November 2015 Vought's HVM, short for Hyper-Velocity Missile, was an anti-tank missile developed during the 1980s. The HVM carried no warhead and killed its targets with kinetic energy alone using a metal rod penetrator. Devel ...

through the 1990s to 2000s

LOSAT The MGM-166 LOSAT (Line-of-Sight Anti-Tank) was a United States anti-tank missile system designed by Lockheed Martin (originally Vought) to defeat tanks and other individual targets. Instead of using a high explosive anti-tank (HEAT) warhead like ...

and finally to the CKEM. The Army Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM) developed this program as part of the Army's

Future Combat Systems Future Combat Systems (FCS) was the United States Army's principal modernization program from 2003 to early 2009. Formally launched in 2003, FCS was envisioned to create new brigades equipped with new manned and unmanned vehicles linked by an unpr ...

. This missile was primarily an anti-tank weapon, and could be mounted on land vehicles and low-altitude aircraft. The goal of these weapons was to demonstrate a state-of-the-art system for the next generation. The program has since been cancelled.

Specifications

* Length: * Motor:

Solid-fuel rocket A solid-propellant rocket or solid rocket is a rocket with a rocket engine that uses solid propellants (fuel/oxidizer). The earliest rockets were solid-fuel rockets powered by gunpowder; they were used in warfare by the Arabs, Chinese, Persia ...

* Max range: * Max weight: * Velocity: * Warhead:

Kinetic energy penetrator A kinetic energy penetrator (KEP), also known as long-rod penetrator (LRP), is a type of ammunition designed to penetrate vehicle armour using a flechette-like, high- sectional density projectile. Like a bullet or kinetic energy weapon, thi ...

* Penetrator energy:

Program status

* October 2003 – Lockheed Martin receives $21.3 million contract for CKEM Advanced Technology Demonstration (ATD) phase. * September 2006 – The CKEM was successfully flight tested against a reinforced urban structure. * February 2007 – A

T-72 tank The T-72 is a family of Soviet/Russian main battle tanks that entered production in 1969. The T-72 was a development of the T-64, which was troubled by high costs and its reliance on immature developmental technology. About 25,000 T-72 tanks ...

equipped with Explosive Reactive Armor was successfully engaged using CKEM at a range of 3400 meters. The test took place at

Eglin Air Force Base Eglin Air Force Base is a United States Air Force (USAF) base in the western Florida Panhandle, located about southwest of Valparaiso in Okaloosa County. The host unit at Eglin is the 96th Test Wing (formerly the 96th Air Base Wing). The 9 ...

, FL.Lockheed Martin’s Compact Kinetic Energy Missile Successful in Final Flight Test
— LM press release.

References

External links

— Designation Systems

— Global Security
CKEM
— Deagel

— Defense Update Anti-tank guided missiles of the United States {{missile-stub