Lockheed Martin’s Next Generation Interceptor (NGI) proposal has completed its digital all-up-round preliminary design review (PDR), keeping it on schedule for a potential delivery as early as fiscal 2027.
The company announced Oct. 16 its NGI completed the milestone in partnership with the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) late last month. The project now will move toward a critical design review scheduled for the third quarter of fiscal 2025, with the team looking for other ways to accelerate the schedule. The company says its NGI could be delivered as early as fiscal 2027.
“I am proud of our team’s commitment to innovating with urgency to achieve expectations for this phase of the program,” Sarah Hiza, vice president and general manager of Strategic and Missile Defense at Lockheed Martin, says in an announcement. “With this additional confidence in our NGI design through a week-long digital review with our MDA customer, we are on track to deliver the right solution to meet the needs of the nation.”
The Defense Department in 2021 awarded Lockheed a contract for up to $3.6 billion and Northrop Grumman $3.9 billion for development of NGI proposals before a downselect decision. MDA in its fiscal 2024 budget request calls for $1.77 billion for NGI development, with $7.6 billion projected through 2028.
While Lockheed projects fielding in 2027, MDA has said it expects it no later than 2028. The agency is developing NGI to replace 44 Ground-Based Interceptors in Alaska and California to counter a North Korean ballistic missile threat.
The NGI designs feature a multiple-kill vehicle payload with improved survivability and increased performance compared to GBI, MDA says.
