Lockheed Martin's Next Generation Interceptor completes preliminary design review

Lockheed Martin's Next Generation Interceptor (NGI) programme executed its digital All Up Round review on September 29 in partnership with the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), the company announced on 16 October.

NGI, part of the MDA's Ground-based Midcourse Defense system, will aim to provide a new, advanced interceptor to protect the US homeland against long-range ballistic missile threats into the 2030s, replacing or supplementing legacy systems in the process.

During the review, the MDA assessed the Lockheed Martin NGI programme's readiness and maturity to continue into the detailed design phase, confirming that Lockheed Martin's solution has met the requirements for the mission.

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Lockheed Martin used digital engineering and model-based engineering tools to conduct the PDR with these tools designed to drive affordability within the programme.

The programme's digital approach was designed to enable early and frequent hardware and software testing, anchoring the PDR with laboratory demonstrations of flight-like engineering hardware. Some of these include validating the programme's approach to sensing threats and Lockheed Martin's flight computer which successfully communicated to major NGI subsystems.

The company's NGI team will now move forward towards the Critical Design Review milestone in Q3 FY2025, continuing to evaluate opportunities to accelerate schedule.

During the next review, the MDA will assess when flight testing can begin. The first Lockheed Martin NGI has been forecast for delivery to the warfighter as early as FY2027.

Northrop Grumman and Raytheon Technologies have also been progressing with their own joint offering for NGI successfully completing the Systems Requirements Review in December 2021.