A top Missile Defense Agency official recently said its work on a brand new hypersonic missile defense effort is “throttled” resulting from latest technology that needs to be matured, however it hopes to ultimately speed up the schedule.
“Should you take a look at this system plan immediately, it’s a fairly prolonged timeframe. And that’s been throttled by a few reasons. Primary is there are latest technologies that should be established and matured and proven out,” Laura DeSimone, Executive Director, Missile Defense Agency, said on Aug. 17 through the Defense News
virtual SMD Debrief event following up on the Space and Missile Defense Symposium from earlier this month.
In 2021, MDA awarded contracts to RTX [RTX], Northrop Grumman [NOC] and Lockheed Martin [LMT] to develop and refine their concepts for the Glide Phase Interceptor (GPI) that seeks to defend against hypersonic glide vehicles (Defense Day by day, Nov. 22, 2021).
Last 12 months, MDA downselected to RTX and Northrop Grumman to proceed refining their concepts (Defense Day by day, June 24, 2022).
In April, former MDA Director Vice Adm. Jon Hill told a House panel he would appreciate funding to speed up deploying GPI, but after the agency works through risk reduction and milestone A to be confident about acceleration opportunities (Defense Day by day, April 21).
Within the fiscal 12 months 2024 budget process, Hill said he supports the primary GPI deployment within the early 2030s but at that hearing lawmakers said they need to see the primary deployment faster. The House version of the FY ‘24 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) features a provision requiring MDA to achieve Initial Operational Capability (IOC) for GPI by the top of 2029, with 12 interceptors fielded.
When asked if this faster timeline is feasible, DeSimone said, “I’d say that that’s everybody’s hope.”
While she wouldn’t comment on current draft laws, she said MDA will proceed to place as many resources as it will possibly to speed up GPI, but immediately the agency has to concentrate on the present next steps.
“I feel there shall be opportunities. But let’s not get focused on when that first emplacement is, let’s get our work done that’s in front of us today.”
DeSimone noted MDA has already reached one major milestone when it moved from material solution to technology development.
“So each teams immediately have the go ahead. And so they’re working to mature their concepts, to mature the upper risk elements of the technology, and we’re looking forward to future reviews- watching that progress proceed to mature,” she said.
DeSimone said she is telling the GPI team to concentrate on today’s work.
“The onus is on us to make progress to mature these technologies. And if opportunities present themselves that we possibly could speed up the schedule, we’ll come consult with the department about that, and see if that’s possible.”
She said she tells the team to not get too caught up in your entire GPI development cycle until they emplace the primary interceptor.
More generally, DeSimone explained why MDA sees GPI as a promising engagement opportunity as a part of a layered defense system.
“Engagement within the terminal flight, if you’re close in to what you’re attempting to protect, will be really difficult, especially I’ll say on this missile class, where they’re coming in very high velocities and we’ve got shorter response times and decision space. If we’re capable of intercept and execute an engagement further out, it not only potentially cuts down if there’s a raid, it [also] gives us this decision space.”
Nonetheless, she said one more reason MDA is working on GPI is that it’s currently an “uncontested battlespace.”
“So if we challenge our adversary on this uncontested battle space, we’re going to force them, if you happen to will, to either maneuver or do something different. And it’s just an incredible opportunity to place in place a layered defensive capability that’s going to overall increase,” DeSimone said.
DeSimone didn’t announce any updates to cooperative GPI work with Japan but said the discussions are “progressing.”
In March, Hill told reporters MDA was exploring working with Japan on cooperative development to supply GPI with Japan, much like the model used on the Standard Missile-3 Block IIA (Defense Day by day, March 16).
The House NDAA also authorizes the MDA director to enter right into a cooperative agreement with international partners for development of GPI’s Full Operational Capability.
DeSimone said Japan “has been an incredible partner to the Missile Defense Agency” with numerous government and industry talent within the country. Since MDA and the Japanese government have been working on joint evaluation, technology maturation for years “in order the necessity for the glide phase interceptor was identified, that was brought into the discussion to see, you realize, are there opportunities to work together here.”
DeSimone said over the past six months DoD and the Japanese government have been meeting “really intensely”, “different possibilities” related to GPI.
“So those discussions are advancing,” she added.