American Made Advocacy: The Administration Changed, but Our Industry’s Needs Remain
The Government Circuit: News on Defense Electronics, Europe, and Sustainability
Defense Speak Interpreted: SWaPing Nanosatellites for Defense Systems
Lockheed Martin Takes Next Step In Homeland Missile Defense Interceptor Acquisition Process
March 5, 2024 | Lockheed MartinEstimated reading time: 1 minute
In November 2023, Lockheed Martin successfully completed a Missile Defense Agency (MDA) acquisition milestone for the nation's modernized long range ballistic missile interceptor. The company completed the first Knowledge Point – known as KP1 – ahead of schedule, taking a major contractual step forward that allows its Next Generation Interceptor (NGI) program to continue development towards the Critical Design Review (CDR).
During KP1, the MDA evaluated Lockheed Martin's development progress to date. This includes completing design review milestones and demonstrating significant maturation across critical technologies, manufacturing readiness, and utility of the company's NGI Software Factory. This KP1 achievement follows the program's All Up Round Preliminary Design Review, which Lockheed Martin executed on-schedule in September.
"I'm proud of the technical rigor our Lockheed Martin and industry team demonstrated. We proved at KP1 that we have reached a level of maturity unprecedented at this stage of a missile defense program," said Sarah Reeves, vice president of NGI at Lockheed Martin. "With MDA's approval, we have turned a corner into our detailed design phase and will keep testing our integrated NGI hardware and software in preparation for production and flight testing."
The company remains on its accelerated path to the next engineering milestone, CDR. Current work includes building ground test vehicles and virtually flying the interceptor during system integration trials, enabled by our digital engineering tool suite.
NGI is designed to deter and defeat evolving rogue-nation long range ballistic missile threats to the U.S. homeland. The first Lockheed Martin NGI is forecast for delivery to the warfighter as early as Fiscal Year 2027.
Share on:
Suggested Items
Romania Becomes the 20th Member of the F-35 Global Alliance
11/21/2024 | Lockheed MartinThe Government of Romania confirmed today its intent to procure 32 Lockheed Martin 5th Generation F-35 Lightning II aircraft by signing a Letter of Offer and Acceptance (LOA) through a U.S. government Foreign Military Sale.
U.S. Army Awards Lockheed Martin Contract to Increase PAC-3 MSE Production Capacity
11/14/2024 | Lockheed MartinThe U.S. Army recently awarded Lockheed Martin a contract to support increasing production capacity to 650 Patriot Advanced Capability – 3 (PAC-3®) Missile Segment Enhancements (MSEs)per year.
Lockheed Martin and Anduril Join Forces to Successfully Detect and Track Drone Threats in Middle East
11/14/2024 | Lockheed MartinLockheed Martin has successfully integrated the Q-53 multi-mission radar (MMR) with Anduril's Lattice Command and Control (C2) environment during the U.S. Central Command Desert Guardian exercise held at Fort Drum earlier this month. Desert Guardian is part of a set of exercises aimed at filling key gaps in its ability to detect and track drone threats.
X-59 Engine Roars, Lockheed Martin Starts Last Major Ground Test
11/12/2024 | Lockheed MartinLockheed Martin Skunk Works, in partnership with NASA Aeronautics, started X-59 engine run testing, marking the aircraft's final major system check-out before taxi tests and first flight. The tests also mark the first time the X-59 was powered fully internally.
HENSOLDT, Lockheed Martin Sign a Memorandum of Understanding
11/12/2024 | Lockheed MartinOn 7 November 2024, Oliver Dörre, CEO of HENSOLDT AG and Paul Lemmo, vice president and general manager Integrated Warfare Systems and Sensors at Lockheed Martin, signed a Memorandum of Understanding on a potential cooperation in the field of maritime command and control systems and radar technologies.