MDA taps Lockheed, Northrop-Raytheon team for NGI, ousting incumbent Boeing

By Jason Sherman  / March 23, 2021

The Missile Defense Agency today selected Lockheed Martin and a Northrop Grumman-Raytheon team for initial design contracts for a Next Generation Interceptor, bumping Boeing from the race to build a new guided missile intended to protect the United States before the end of the decade from advanced North Korean intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The source selection marks a major realignment of U.S. missile defense industrial teaming, with Lockheed Martin elbowing its way into contention to be the new interceptor supplier and Boeing -- the current GMD prime contractor -- ousted from a program it has owned since 2004 by a Northrop Grumman-Raytheon team that are key suppliers of rockets and warheads in the currently fielded Ground-based Interceptor.

The combined potential value of the two contracts is $7.5 billion, according to the Pentagon.

"In alignment with the Department of Defense's current missile defense strategy, [Lockheed Martin and the Northrop-Raytheon team] will perform technology development and risk reduction of the Next Generation Interceptor (NGI) All-Up-Round capable of surviving natural and hostile environments while countering emerging threats," according to the Pentagon's contract announcement. "Allowing a technology development phase will help ensure that the NGI is an efficient and effective part of an integrated Missile Defense System solution by permitting the department to further analyze requirements and make necessary adjustments in preparation for the product development phase."

While MDA last year outlined plans to spend more than $5 billion through fiscal year 2025 on NGI, Pentagon sources say the contracts awarded today include options for the government to review the project at the end of FY-23 and exit the program.

"The contract has off ramps," said a DOD official. "So at the end of this phase there will be an opportunity to assess."

The initial NGI program is expected to buy 20 guided missiles, according to a source.

MDA launched the NGI program to develop a new long-range, guided missile to protect the United States against anticipated North Korean and Iranian ballistic missile threats beginning in 2030. The project is a follow-on to the Redesigned Kill Vehicle effort, terminated in August 2019, that was a centerpiece of MDA plans to modernize the GMD system.

"Today's awards are an important step in modernizing our Missile Defense System," Stacy Cummings, performing the duties of under secretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, said in a statement. "NGI plays an important role in our homeland defense, and our acquisition strategy is ensuring the department maximizes innovation to keep pace with rapidly advancing threats."

MDA outlined specific performance requirements but not a specific design and provided bidders incentives to accelerate development and fielding in hopes of delivering a new interceptor before 2028. The Pentagon anticipates buying 20 NGIs to deploy in new silos in Alaska, recently completed and now empty, that were originally built for interceptors armed with the now-terminated RKV warhead.

"The Pentagon has taken a bold step toward developing a long-term solution that is responsive to warfighter need, subordinated to a JROC requirement set, and that uses an acquisition strategy with a lot of competition," said Tom Karako, missile defense expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "The path here has been long, and the path forward will require a mix of solutions, both next-generation capability advances and near-term investments for improving today's GBIs and GMD system. By breaking from the past in prioritizing capability over capacity, NGI represents a big bet on the future ability to contend with the increasingly complex rogue state ballistic missile threat to the homeland."

Today's contract awards illustrate the challenges of quickly launching complex new weapon system projects. The formal launch of NGI comes nearly two years after senior Pentagon officials halted work on the Redesigned Kill Vehicle in late May 2019, jettisoning a $1.2 billion investment in that GMD project. The lost time comes as North Korea has advanced its ICBM program, prompting U.S. commanders to publicly raise questions about the efficacy of the GMD system against Pyongyang's projected capabilities as soon as 2025.

"NGI is the result of the first holistic technical assessment of homeland defenses the department has conducted since initial system operations began in 2004," MDA Director Vice Adm. Jon Hill said in a statement. "By planning to carry two vendors through technology development, MDA will maximize the benefits of competition to deliver the most effective and reliable homeland defense missile to the warfighter as soon as possible. Once fielded, this new homeland defense interceptor will be capable of defeating expected threat advances into the 2030s and beyond."