The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA), in a competitive downselect phase, selected Lockheed Martin and partner Aerojet Rocketdyne to deliver the nation’s most advanced missile defense system, the Next Generation Interceptor (NGI). The $3.7 billion contract for Next Generation Interceptor is the first step in the development and demonstration phase delivering on MDA’s requirements to modernize the current Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system. The NGI is specifically designed to meet environmental survivability needs and to enable the warfighter to outpace adversary threats for homeland defense. This contract will develop the interceptor all-up-round, which includes both the booster and hit-to-kill payload and will launch from the current GBI silo infrastructure in Ft. Greely, AK and Vandenberg AFB, CA.
NGI is a missile defense interceptor program designed to protect and defend the U.S. from intercontinental ballistic missiles. This program will serve as a first line of a layered missile defense architecture against evolving threats from rogue nations and is a national priority for the MDA and U.S. Northern Command. The first interceptor will be fielded ahead of the nation’s need. Lockheed Martin leveraged its $580-million investment in multi-object kill vehicle technology, hit-to-kill experience on THAAD and decades providing strategic systems to the U.S. Navy Trident program. The NGI system design provides significant enhancement from the onset with the ability to respond to multiple threats with a single interceptor. This significant advance, coupled with a refreshed approach to design for maintainability and reliability, provide the operational availability the warfighter requires.
Lockheed Martin is uniquely qualified to lead the way in designing, integrating and testing a modernized NGI program for the GMD. NGI achieves these capabilities with 21st-century innovations like Multiple Kill Vehicle technologies, digital engineering, and DevSecOps. Other advances such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data analytics, and 3-D printing position Lockheed Martin to accelerate the production schedule for NGI and deliver the system to MDA and the warfighter ahead of USNORTHCOM’s targeted fielding date of late 2028.Lockheed Martin is also leveraging its expertise and proficiency gained from its other strategic and missile defense systems, including Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) and Hypersonic Strike, as well as its heritage of building spacecraft that can withstand the harsh radiation environment of space.
Lockheed Martin is offering an interceptor designed from the ground up as an all-up-round to address all elements of environmental survivability from day one. NGI plays a pivotal role in in a layered defense approach that adds THAAD and Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense as a second line of defense against incoming missiles in their terminal phase. This layered approach increases reliability, resiliency and overall system effectiveness, acts as a deterrent to adversaries, and allows the U.S. leaders to operate from a position of strength. Developing and fielding this layered approach with NGI as the prime line of defense offers the U.S. homeland the security it needs now and in the future. Lockheed Martin’s 21st-century technologies and record of delivering on never-fail missions will modernize our nation’s missile defense program in the face of the ever-increasing threat from rogue nations.
