Unlike football, missile defense believes in 'Hit to Kill'

Pentagon deems interceptor missile test a success

"...The kill vehicle is designed to identify, lock on, and eliminate high-speed ballistic missile warheads while they are in space. The kill vehicle uses no explosives and destroys the missile by the sheer force of the impact. Raytheon calls the system hit to kill. The program has had failures in the past...."

Reference: www.slashgear.com .

Modified Ground-Based Interceptor Completes Successful Flight Test

Modified Ground-Based Interceptor Completes Successful Flight Test

"...A target missile was not launched for this flight test. After performing flyout maneuvers, the two-stage booster delivered an exoatmospheric kill vehicle to a designated point in space. The exoatmospheric kill vehicle is the component that, if a target missile were present, would collide directly with the threat warhead to perform a “hit to kill” intercept. After separating from the second-stage booster, the kill vehicle executed a variety of maneuvers to collect data to further prove the performance of the kill vehicle in space...."

Reference: www.mda.mil .