Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) is expediting the development of the Glide Phase Interceptor (GPI) to address the growing threat of hypersonic missiles, to reach a Preliminary Design Review by 2028. This program, funded by the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), is a key component of the United States’ layered missile defense strategy, designed to deliver first-of-its-kind counter-hypersonic capabilities. The team continues to validate its GPI design through rigorous testing, including simulations of extreme temperature conditions and trials of interstage separation systems. Engineers are also progressing model integration with the Aegis Weapon System, ensuring seamless interoperability across the MDA’s missile defense architecture to counter regional hypersonic threats. As part of its role in the GPI Cooperative Development program in support of MDA and its Japan Ministry of Defense partner, Northrop Grumman remains committed to strengthening collaborative efforts that advance global security.
- As part of the contract, the team will:
- Conduct critical flight tests to reduce risk and refine system design.
- Expand multi-mission capabilities to enhance effectiveness and affordability for warfighters.
- Explore additional launch strategies for seamless integration into future national defense architectures.
Wendy Williams, vice president and general manager, launch & exploration, Northrop Grumman: “Northrop Grumman is moving with speed to streamline and deliver a first-of-a-kind countermeasure against hypersonic threats. This award underscores the critical need for missile defense technologies, which Northrop Grumman is uniquely equipped to provide.”
Glide Phase Interceptor (GPI) is a ship-launched, hit-to-kill missile now under development for the United States Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and Japan’s Ministry of Defense. It is intended to destroy hypersonic glide vehicles while they are still maneuvering through the upper atmosphere, the so-called glide phase, at ranges and altitudes beyond the Navy’s current SM-6 terminal-defense capability. GPI will be fired from the Mk 41 Vertical Launching System aboard Aegis-equipped destroyers and from Aegis Ashore batteries, integrating with the fleet’s existing command-and-control architecture. The Glide Phase Interceptor is designed to slot into the existing Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense kill-chain, with only software updates to Baseline 9/10 combat-system suites and the C2BMC network. Detection and precision tracking of a hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) begin with long-range space-based sensors, initially SBIRS / OPIR satellites and, by the late-2020s, the dedicated Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor (HBTSS) layer, which hand off fire-control quality tracks to the AN/SPY-1D(V) or SPY-6 radar.
