Defense Speak Interpreted: Update on the Continuing Resolution and Budget Process for Defense
American Made Advocacy: Reshoring—About Trust, Not Just Geography
Beyond the Board: The Future of Innovation—Why the Electronics Industry Needs You
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
Eighth Lockheed Martin-Built GPS III Satellite Arrives in Florida for Final Launch Preparations
04/08/2025 | Lockheed MartinThe eighth Lockheed Martin-designed and -built Global Positioning System (GPS) III space vehicle (SV08) for the U.S. Space Force has successfully arrived in Florida to begin final preparations for a launch in late spring 2025.
Lockheed Martin, Google Cloud Announce Collaboration to Advance Generative AI For National Security
03/31/2025 | Lockheed MartinLockheed Martin and Google Public Sector today announced their intent to integrate Google’s advanced generative artificial intelligence (genAI) into Lockheed Martin’s AI Factory ecosystem.
Lockheed Martin's LM 400 Tech Demo to Prove Out Design and Risk Reduction Efforts
03/06/2025 | Lockheed MartinThe latest self-funded technology demonstration from Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) is ready to launch no earlier than March 15.
Lockheed Martin, Nokia, and Verizon Advance Defense Capabilities Through 5G.MIL® Collaboration
03/04/2025 | Lockheed MartinLockheed Martin, Nokia, and Verizon announced the successful integration of Nokia's industry-leading, military-grade 5G solutions into Lockheed Martin's 5G.MIL® Hybrid Base Station (HBS).
LRASM Performs Flight Test in F-35 Integration Test Series
03/04/2025 | Lockheed MartinLockheed Martin and the F-35 Pax River Integrated Test Force (ITF) completed an initial flight test integrating the Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) weapon system onto the F-35B Lightning II stealth fighter jet. This most recent test follows a flight test with LRASM on F-35C in September 2024.