Defense Department leaders last week approved the Glide Phase Interceptor program to proceed into technology development, signaling support for the Missile Defense Agency's proposed acquisition strategy and plan to mature technologies essential to producing a guided missile designed to hunt down and destroy enemy hypersonic glide vehicles. On April 21, Bill LaPlante, the Pentagon’s acquisition executive, approved a recommendation to transition the GPI program from the Material Solutions Analysis phase into Technology Development, the equivalent of a milestone A review,...