I wouldn't think so. Hit to kill is going to have the same but worse timing issues as a proximity hit since the size is much smaller. I would guess the real re

I wouldn't think so. Hit to kill is going to have the same but worse timing issues as a proximity hit since the size is much smaller. I would guess the real reason is that if the target is ballistic, you need to actually "kill" it, not just wing it like you can with an airplane. If you wing it the warhead will still fall in roughly the same place with a probably intact warhead. To be safe you want to actually destroy the warhead. Worse case it goes off at point of impact, which is better than on the target.