European defense firms led by Destinus are forming a consortium to develop an exo-atmospheric interceptor.
The Bliksem EXO consortium aims to conduct a test of the kill vehicle in space in 2027, addressing Europe's lack of a sovereign system to intercept medium and intermediate-range ballistic missiles.
The system will be designed to detect, track, and defeat MRBM and IRBM threats through a kinetic hit-to-kill impact, without an explosive warhead, and will complement existing European lower-layer defenses.
