Lockheed Martin announced on 16 October 2023 that its Next Generation Interceptor (NGI) programme has executed its digital All Up Round (AUR) Preliminary Design Review (PDR).
The review was secured in partnership with the US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and was achieved on 29 September. The company says it remains on-plan to deliver the NGI programme on an accelerated schedule.
The NGI is part of the MDA’s Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system and will provide a new, advanced interceptor to protect the US homeland against long-range ballistic missile threats from rogue nations. During the review the MDA assessed the NGI programme’s readiness and maturity to continue into the detailed design phase, confirming that Lockheed Martin’s solution continues to meet requirements for the mission.
Lockheed Martin’s NGI team will now move forward toward the programme’s Critical Design Review milestone in Q3 FY2025, continuing to evaluate opportunities to accelerate the schedule. During this next significant review, the MDA will assess when flight testing can begin.
“I am proud of our team’s commitment to innovating with urgency to achieve expectations for this phase of the programme,” Sarah Hiza, vice president and general manager of Strategic and Missile Defense at Lockheed Martin, was quoted as saying in a company press release. “With this additional confidence in our NGI design through a week-long digital review with our MDA customer, we are on track to deliver the right solution to meet the needs of the nation.”
Lockheed Martin says it used digital engineering and model-based engineering tools to conduct the PDR. “These tools ultimately drive affordability within the programme, as the company progresses to deliver a capable, mature, and reliable interceptor to the MDA,” it stated.
“The programme’s digital approach enables early and frequent hardware and software testing, anchoring the PDR with lab 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 says the NGI is forecast for delivery to the warfighter as early as FY2027.
