Northrop Grumman missile interceptor passes test
Northrop Grumman and Raytheon have teamed up to bid for the Next Generation Interceptor requirement. (Image: Northrop Grumman)
Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman-Raytheon have been competing for the Next Generation Interceptor programme to defend the US from Intercontinental Ballistic Missile threats.
Northrop Grumman and its partner company Raytheon have successfully completed the All-Up Round (AUR) Preliminary Design Review (PDR) of its Next Generation Interceptor (NGI) offering, part of the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense system, in partnership with the US DoD Missile Defense Agency (MDA).
A key requirement of this PDR has been demonstrating that the design would maintain full capability while surviving challenging environments, as well as establishing the approach for the full integration of the interceptor design across all its subsystems before moving into more advanced phases of development.
The Northrop Grumman team provided on-site interactive demonstrators for review by MDA, including a full-scale solid rocket motor, avionics and other test hardware.
Raytheon provided kill vehicle hardware used during environmental testing, sensor hardware, kill vehicle hardware that supports manufacturing fixtures and test equipment. There was also a full-scale digital model of the AUR design in a virtual reality environment as part of the PDR.
Following the successful completion of PDR, Northrop Grumman will continue maturing its NGI design on the path to its Critical Design Review. The first operational NGI has been forecast to be deployed as early as 2027.
Lockheed Martin's NGI programme executed its digital AUR PDR review on September 29 last year.
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