Quick Kill is a new "hit avoidance" system designed by Raytheon to protect combat vehicles and their warfighters from enemy fire. It destroys enemy weapons with speed, surgical accuracy and minimal collateral damage. The system is capable of instantly engaging projectiles fired from any location around or above the vehicle.

The test featured an RPG launched at close range, simulating an engagement of a Stryker combat vehicle equipped with Raytheon's Quick Kill system. The Quick Kill's active electronically scanned array radar detected and tracked the RPG and -- after computing its speed, trajectory and intercept point -- cued the precision-launched weapon to counterattack and destroy the RPG with its focused blast warhead.

The weapon performed a vertical "soft launch," pitched over, accelerated to the point of intercept, fired its warhead and destroyed the RPG in mid-air. All of this occurred in the proverbial blink of an eye.

Raytheon's approach to this technological breakthrough is equivalent to firing a weapon around a corner and hitting another weapon, while both speed through the air at hundreds of meters per second. Raytheon is the first company to develop and then prove this concept of engagement by successfully intercepting an RPG at close range.

"Quick Kill's speed, precision and effectiveness are truly amazing," said Glynn Raymer, vice president of Raytheon Combat Systems. "It offers our current force warfighters a level of battlefield protection that no one has ever seen before."

"We wanted to prove the APS technology as quickly as possible and accelerate its fielding to warfighters," said Johnny Garrett, director of Raytheon Integrated Systems. "Using our own money, Raytheon took Quick Kill from concept to reality in fewer than six months."

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