MDA Picks Northrop Grumman For Glide Phase Interceptor

The U.S. and Japan have chosen Northrop Grumman to continue development of a new long-range hypersonic defense system known as the glide phase interceptor (GPI), the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) announced Sept. 25.

The two nations are developing the GPI to provide an additional glide-phase layer of regional hypersonic defense, designed to launch from the U.S. Navy’s Aegis ballistic missile defense destroyers and Aegis Ashore systems. MDA is leading the program’s development for the Defense Department, and Japan is supplying rocket motors and propulsion components under a cooperative development project arrangement signed in May.

The agency in November 2021 awarded three missile system contracts to Lockheed Martin, Raytheon—now part of RTX—and Northrop Grumman to develop proposals for GPI via other transaction authorities (OTA). In June 2022, it selected Northrop Grumman and Raytheon to continue developing proposals with firm-fixed price contract modifications worth more than $41.4 million, and the program transitioned to the technology development phase in April 2023.

Under this new announcement, Northrop Grumman will continue to refine its preliminary design of the GPI under its existing OTA, and demonstrate system performance in hypersonic environments ahead of a preliminary design review (PDR) scheduled for fiscal 2030. It will also complete flight experiments using the company’s own flight-proven systems and use digital engineering practices to accelerate the design processes and more quickly develop interceptor capabilities, the company said in a Sept. 25 statement.

Its interceptor design includes a seeker for threat tracking and hit-to-kill accuracy, a reignitable upper stage engine used for threat containment and a dual engagement mode to face threats across a wide range of altitudes.

MDA said this effort should lead to a follow-on development and production contract and that the agency “is confident of this decision based on the GPI concept’s technology maturity, high-fidelity model performance predictions, detailed technical maturation plans and industry-provided cost and schedule proposals,” a statement says.

The Northrop Grumman agreement option will be officially awarded later this year, an MDA spokesperson said in a Sept. 25 email. Raytheon’s current option exercise agreement ends later this year, they added.

Raytheon referred requests to comment to the MDA and said the company “remains committed to supporting the U.S. Missile Defense Agency” in an email to Aviation Week.

A dedicated interceptor for shooting down maneuvering objects at hypersonic speeds has been in the works since 2019. The MDA first scrapped the Regional Glide Phase Weapon System concept in 2021 as too ambitious. In its place, the agency launched the GPI program later that year, with a scaled-down goal of demonstrating a prototype by the end of the decade and fielding an operational interceptor in 2035.

But program funding levels failed to meet expectations. The MDA was expected to ramp up spending on GPI over the next five years in the fiscal 2025 budget request, but instead requested a total of $1.16 billion. This represents a 33% cut compared to the previous future years defense program and far below expectations.

The Japanese government could help offset some of the impact. In April, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida agreed to invest $1 billion in GPI development.

In the meantime, the MDA plans to stage the first test of an intercept of a hypersonic glide vehicle in 2026. The interceptor for that will be the Sea-Based Terminal version of the Raytheon SM-6.

DARPA is also quietly developing technology for the counter-hypersonic mission. In September 2023, the agency awarded Boeing a $70 million contract to launch Phase 2 of the secretive Glide Breaker program. In Phase 1, DARPA contracted with Aerojet Rocketdyne, now part of L3Harris, to develop an advanced divert and attitude control system.