The multiple-kill vehicle, or MKV, is a frightening, hovering, trash-can-size robot that’s designed to counter today’s ballistic missiles — the kind that release multiple “threat clusters” containing warheads, decoys, and other obstructive countermeasures. The idea is to fit up to 20 inside a single antiballistic missile and deploy them to take out incoming threat clusters. The devices are set to test in 2009, when the agency plans to send some up in an antiballistic missile to intercept simulated arrays.

(via Very Short List)