The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) plans to pick the winner of the Glide Phase Interceptor (GPI) hypersonic defense system soon and reduce research and development funds thanks to co-development with Japan, recent budget documents said.
According to FY 2025 budget documents, MDA is requesting $182 million in hypersonic defense, a drop from the $209 million from FY ‘24. The FY ‘24 budget request also predicted the agency would seek $219 million for hypersonic defense in FY ‘25.
The documents said the year over year decrease “reflects the expected savings from the selection of a single missile system prime contractor and the cooperative development agreement with the Japan Ministry of Defense.”
MDA originally awarded contracts to RTX [RTX], Northrop Grumman [NOC] and Lockheed Martin [LMT] for GPI development and concept refinement starting in 2021 (Defense Daily, Nov. 22, 2021).
Then, in 2022, MDA downselected to RTX and Northrop Grumman, which have continued concept refinement (Defense Daily, June 24, 2022).
Last year, former MDA head Vice Adm. Jon Hill said DoD was exploring a cooperative development and production of GPI akin to how both countries worked on the Standard Missile (SM)-3 Block IIA together (Defense Daily, March 16, 2023).
Earlier this month, current MDA Director Air Force Lt. Gen. Heath Collins said the work between the countries is maturing and they expect to sign an agreement for co-development “in the coming months (Defense Daily, March 8).
Budget documents said R&D funds for FY ‘25 and beyond “provide transition of the program requirements allocation and system design to development and testing of preliminary design hardware and software builds. Hypersonic technology maturation, risk reduction and system engineering activities will be completed to support preliminary design development and testing of the missile concept.”
The documents also revealed a decrease in GPI/hypersonic defense program R&D spending past FY ‘25. The FY ‘24 request planned for MDA to seek $294 million in FY ‘26, $367 million in 2027, and $645 million in FY 2028.
The FY ‘25 request changed those numbers to instead spending $193 million in FY ‘26, $205 million in 2027 and $250 million in 2028.
This means MDA’s budget plan for hypersonic defense R&D from FY 2025 to ‘28 is $673 million less than it planned last year. The latest budget request also plans to spend about $328 million in FY 2029.
The budget documents also underscored the hypersonic defense weapon will leverage ongoing upgrades to the Aegis Weapon System to use GPI for regional hypersonic glide phase defense based on Aegis ships.
The overall hypersonic defense program element covers “execution of the systems engineering activities, upgrade of existing systems, investment in new technologies, and development of new regional defensive capabilities and maturation for delivery in the 2030s.”
The current GPI strategy timetable has been pushed back a year since the FY ‘24 budget request. The Preliminary Design Review (PDR) for GPI is now planned for FY 2030 instead of 2029, Critical Design Review will follow in FY 2033 rather than 2032 and delivery is expected to start in FY 2035 instead of 2034.
The FY 2024 defense authorization act pushed MDA to develop GPI faster than previously planned. It directs the agency to reach initial operating capability by the end of 2029, which equates to fielding at least 12 interceptors. The law also directs MDA to reach full operating capability with at least 24 interceptors by 2032 (Defense Daily, Dec. 21, 2023).