At Raytheon's Space Factory, nestled in the Sonoran Desert, engineers are building some of the world's most complex and sensitive military devices: Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicles, or EKVs, designed to protect the U.S. from the world's deadliest weapons. In a room designed to filter out nearly all dust particles from the air, two EKVs—dubbed Payload 70 and 71 —are nearing the end of their assembly. These two payloads, one of which is the Block 1 variant, are scheduled to be launched on Ground-Based Interceptors to snuff out a mock intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in an upcoming operational test.
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