Missile Defense Agency asks industry for American ‘Iron Dome’ concepts
The agency's RFI seeks capabilities that can be deployed in "epochs" starting in 2026, and running in two year increments to "beyond" Dec. 31 2030.
The agency's RFI seeks capabilities that can be deployed in "epochs" starting in 2026, and running in two year increments to "beyond" Dec. 31 2030.
Keeping the Glide Phase Interceptor program on track needs to be a priority for the new administration and Congress, writes former NORTHCOM officer Howard “Dallas” Thompson.
"Today's decision represents a turning point for hypersonic glide phase defense," Lt. Gen. Heath Collins, MDA director, said in the announcement.
Missile Defense Agency Director Lt. Gen. Heath Collins told CSIS that he is "absolutely" trying to speed development of the Glide Phase Interceptor, but that any changes must keep the program "viable."
Kazuya Yonekura, director of guided weapons project management division of the Japanese ministry of defense, spoke to Breaking Defense in Tokyo.
The Missile Defense Agency recently accelerated plans to pick a winning vendor, a decision previously planned for next year.
The MDA request includes $105 million for the Long Range Discrimination Radar (LRDR), slightly more than the $103.5 requested in FY24. LRDR, deemed a critical capability by US Northern Command (NORTHCOM)/NORAD leaders, will transfer to the Space Force to begin operations in FY25.
An SDA official explained that the six "preliminary fire control" satellites in Tracking Layer Tranche 2 will carry a mix of wide-field-of-view and medium-field-of-view infrared cameras.
"The key word here is persistence," study author Masao Dahlgren told Breaking Defense. "How do we get persistence over the regions we care about? That hasn't been as explicitly put into prior work until now. This report puts into sharp relief."
Under its Glide Breaker project, DARPA wants to develop a prototype kill vehicle to intercept incoming hypersonic vehicles in their glide phase, before they begin high-speed maneuvers.
Washington and Tokyo hope to nail down co-funding details for the Glide Phase Interceptor by next year, according to a Pentagon spokesperson.
MDA Acting Director Rear Adm. Doug Williams said that the agency's plans include beginning tests of its Next-Generation Interceptor in 2027, "with the anticipation of operational testing of NGI at the end of 2029."
Russia since this spring has been using both newly minted cruise missiles and even hypersonic missiles in its war to annex Ukraine.
The draft National Space Authorization Act would also push Space Force on integrating commercial data and on over-classification of space programs.