Eliminating the need for a blast-fragmentation warhead also allowed engineers to reduce the missile’s diameter to about 1.5 in.

During development, since 2008, Murphy says that Lockheed Martin pulled technologies from the medical imaging community and cellular phone industry for its seeker. Achieving the high accuracy needed to intercept a rocket or mortar in flight was among the highest risk areas for the program, he says.

However, the company designed its EAPS missile with producibility foremost in its planning; and the technologies used will be ready for a proper procurement at the end of the effort in fiscal 2015.

Intercept tests against actual C-RAM targets are slated by year’s end, Crawford says.