Wednesday, October 16, 2024

Progress on Lockheed Martin’s Next Generation Interceptor program

Lockheed Martin successfully validated designs for all elements of the nation’s Next Generation Interceptor (NGI) with the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA).

The company demonstrated it had achieved design maturity and reduced risk for critical technologies through a series of successful and on-schedule Preliminary Design Reviews (PDRs) of all NGI major subsystems.

Despite the significant efforts to reduce nuclear arsenals and launch platforms since the Cold War, there are still a staggering number of warheads ready for launch around the globe. There are hundreds of missiles aimed at the U.S. at any given moment is certainly a cause for concern.

NGI is the future of the MDA’s Ground-Based Missile Defense (GMD) system to protect the U.S. homeland against intercontinental ballistic missile threats from rogue nations.

“Lockheed Martin is making rapid progress with our NGI solution, remaining on an accelerated schedule toward flight testing,” said Sarah Reeves, vice president of NGI at Lockheed Martin, in a press release. “During these reviews, we took a modern and transparent approach through the use of advanced digital engineering and model-based engineering tools. Our NGI team will continue on-plan to demonstrate our revolutionary NGI architecture, leveraging mature technologies for high mission confidence.”

Lockheed Martin’s NGI solution will increase warfighter capability, providing an improved defensive solution to address the complex battlespace now and in the future.

The NGI program is now on track for its next major review, the All Up Round PDR. During this next major review, MDA will assess if the program is ready to move forward in the acquisition process through Knowledge Point number one and ultimately on to the Critical Design Review.

The first Lockheed Martin NGI is forecast for delivery to the warfighter as early as 2027.

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