The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) awarded both Northrop Grumman [NOC] and
RTX [RTX] another $54 million to fund further concept refinement for their hypersonic defense Glide Phase Intercept (GPI) concepts.
In 2021, MDA first awarded the companies $19 million to $21 million to develop and refine GPI concepts to help defend U.S. forces from hypersonic missiles (Defense Daily, Nov. 22, 2021).
The latest modifications, awarded Nov. 15, awards about $52.5 million to both companies. This raises the total value of the contracts to $292 million and $294 million to Northrop Grumman and RTX, respectively.
The award notice said the modification will have the companies “continue to develop and refine their Glide Phase Intercept concept during the Technology Development Phase” through February 2025.
Previously, MDA awarded the companies modifications also along these lines in April (Defense Daily, May 1).
In March, former MDA Director Vice Adm. Jon Hill said the agency was looking at working with Japan on cooperative development for both countries to produce the GPIs, akin to the model used with the Standard Missile-3 Block IIA program (Defense Daily, March 16).
The fiscal year 2024 budget documents envision deploying GPI starting in the early 2030s, but, in April, Hill told a House panel he would welcome funding to accelerate deployment of the program after it works through Milestone A and risk reduction, to increase confidence about acceleration opportunities (Defense Daily, April 21).
The House version of the FY ‘24 defense authorization act has a provision that would require the MDA to reach Initial Operational Capability for GPI by the end of 2029, fielding 12 interceptors.
In August, MDA Executive Director Laura DeSimone said moving on that kind of faster timeline is “everybody’s hope” but they need to first complete the current steps in the program (Defense Daily, Aug. 22).
At the time she also said the program is currently being throttled or limited by a few factors, including that the program includes new technologies that have to be “established and matured and proven out.”