HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) leader this week disclosed more details about the testing timeline for the new Next Generation Interceptor (NGI), expected to be underway before the end of the decade.

Under the current timeline, MDA plans to start testing the eventual NGI competition winner in 2027 and anticipates “operational testing of NGI in the ‘29 timeframe,” Acting Director of MDA Rear Adm. Douglas Williams said here Wednesday during the Space and Missile Defense Symposium.

A long-range Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI) is launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. In a flight test of a three-stage booster rocket operating in a two-stage mode. (Photo: Missile Defense Agency)
A long-range Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI) is launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., in a flight test of a three-stage booster rocket operating in a two-stage mode in 2021. (Photo: Missile Defense Agency)

Since 2021, MDA has been working with two teams led by Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Northrop Grumman [NOC] to develop NGI options. The agency plans to select a single winner after the Critical Design Review (CDR) (Defense Daily, March 21, 2021).

The Defense Department currently fields 44 older Ground Based Interceptors (GBI) used in the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system. The GBIs are largely based at Fort Greely, Alaska but it has 20 additional silos ready for NGI emplacement.

MDA is developing the NGI to better defeat a limited number of long range nuclear missile threats from North Korea as it adds advanced capabilities like multiple warhead kill vehicles and decoys.

Northrop Grumman told reporters this week it expects to reach the CDR phase of the All Up Round about a year after the Preliminary Design Review (PDR) by the end of this year, which means it could reach CDR as early as December 2024 (Defense Daily,  Aug. 8).

Similarly, Lockheed Martin told Defense Daily it plans to complete its PDR as soon as September and then complete CDR on schedule as well.

Both companies said they believe they can deliver the first NGI unit by 2027, a year earlier than MDA’s objective.

On Thursday, the administration’s pick to be the next MDA director confirmed the agency is aiming to conduct the All Up Round Preliminary Design Reviews for both competitors around the end of this calendar year and start placing the production missiles in 2028.

“Our focus is emplacement by the end of fiscal year ‘28 and we are driving to that readily,” Air Force Maj Gen. Heath Collins, Program Executive for Ground Based Missile Defense, said as the final speaker for the symposium.

President Biden nominated Collins to succeed Vice Adm. Hill as director of MDA, but Rear Adm. Doug Williams, the agency’s director for test, is serving as acting director due to the blanket hold on DoD nominations by Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.).

Air Force Maj Gen. Heath Collins, Program Executive for Ground Based Missile Defense at the Missile Defense Agency, outlines future missile defense capabilities for the agency at the August 2023 Space and Missile Defense Symposium. Collins is also the Biden administration’s appointee to lead MDA but has not yet been confirmed. (Image: Screenshot of the symposium virtual view, by Richard Abott, Defense Daily)
Air Force Maj Gen. Heath Collins, Program Executive for Ground Based Missile Defense at the Missile Defense Agency, outlines future missile defense capabilities for the agency at the August 2023 Space and Missile Defense Symposium. Collins is also the Biden administration’s pick to lead MDA but has not yet been confirmed. (Image: Screenshot of the symposium virtual view, by Richard Abott, Defense Daily)

Collins underscored MDA is working to bring GMD operators into these early stages of NGI design to get ahead on developing concepts of operations and “how to utilize NGI as best as possible.”

In April, former MDA Director Vice Adm. Jon Hill testified before a congressional panel that the current flexible MDA acquisition plan for NGI allows the agency to expand past 20 NGIs and confirmed both companies are on track for delivery by 2027 (Defense Daily, April 21).

As MDA plans to maintain the competition at least through the CDR phase, both companies will develop separate production lines, allowing faster production and potentially allowing the government to have both competitors ultimately build one design faster or in greater numbers, Hill said.

With operational testing will occurring no sooner than 2029, NGIs may not be deployed in numbers until the mid-2030s.

In 2022, Hill told the same committee that DoD does not plan to decide exactly how many NGIs it ultimately wants to buy, if past the planned 20, until 2024 (Defense Daily, May 23, 2022).

At the same hearing, Air Force Gen. Glen VanHerck, commander of U.S. Northern Command and NORAD, said he is comfortable with NGI delivery in 2027-2028.

In 2022 Hill said they are “not really concerned” about the state of the new GBIs that are expected to last into the 2030s, but that the Defense Department may want to start using the NGIs to replace the older GBIs.

“And that’s why I think it’s very important to have the two contractors in play. That’s the other option we have here – you can keep them beyond the CDR and you could have a double production house, depending on where the threat goes. And if you need numbers, we can build the numbers by having two contractors carried through critical design review,” Hill said.