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New 'Star Wars' robot can shoot down enemy ballistic missiles

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London, Dec 12 (ANI): The US government has unveiled a new "Star Wars" flying robot that can shoot down enemy ballistic missiles.

According to a report in the Telegraph, the Multiple Kill Vehicle, or MKV-L, is designed to hover in the air under its own power and track missiles before blasting them out of the sky.

The MKV-L was developed by a team of scientists led by contractor Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company.

The weapon is the latest addition to the US's controversial missile defence shield, formerly referred to as "Star Wars" when first announced by the Reagan administration in the 1980s at the height of the Cold War.

In the event of an enemy missile launch, a carrier vehicle would be fired into space to unleash hordes of the weapons, which would then lock on to their targets and destroy them.

A video released by the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) shows the MKV-L being tested the device at the National Hover Test Facility at Edwards Air Force Base, in California.

It shows the gadget hovering and shifting from left to right under the power of tiny rockets as it mimics how it would track a missile.

"The MKV-L mission is to destroy medium through to intercontinental-range ballistic missiles equipped with multiple warheads or countermeasures by using a single interceptor missile," an MDA spokesman said.

"During an actual hostile ballistic missile attack, the carrier vehicle with its cargo of small kill vehicles will manoeuvre into the path of an enemy missile," he added.

"Using tracking data from the Ballistic Missile Defense System and its own seeker, the carrier vehicle will dispense and guide the kill vehicles to destroy any warheads or countermeasures," he further added. (ANI)

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