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Missile Defense Agency outlines program progress and schedule risks for next‑generation interceptors

3162303 · May 1, 2025
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Summary

The Missile Defense Agency told the House subcommittee it is committed to delivering a next‑generation interceptor (NGI) and is exploring acceleration options for glide‑phase and hypersonic defenses, while acknowledging schedule risks tied to solid rocket motor development and prior down‑select decisions.

The Missile Defense Agency told the House Strategic Forces Subcommittee that its highest priority remains fielding the Next Generation Interceptor (NGI) and that several hypersonic and glide‑phase programs face schedule pressure tied to prior funding and procurement decisions.

Lieutenant General Heath Collins described a multidecade role for MDA in national missile defense architecture and said that NGI remains “our largest and highest priority program for homeland defense.” He said last year’s early down‑select and funding profile changes affected schedules. On the glide‑phase interceptor, Collins said the program was delayed and that they are “pursuing and evaluating, acceleration options” but that the earliest plausible recovery would be to the originally expected timeline “with no increased level of programmatic risk.” He said “we’ll actually push that delivery to 2035” under current profiles but that other options are being explored.

The agency also identified solid rocket motor development as a major program risk for NGI. Collins said last year’s assessment identified the new booster’s motor development as the “number 1 risk” and that the program expects an 18‑month or longer delay in initial capability because of motor development issues; MDA said it has taken steps to shore up development and add an additional source to reduce schedule risk.

MDA emphasized two parallel lines of work: (1) near‑term improvements to fielded architectures to improve capacity and capability, and (2) aggressive prototyping and development of disruptive technologies (directed energy, non‑kinetic defeat, and space options) to provide future capability. General Collins told the committee MDA plans “a very heavy cyclical prototyping phase” to mature advanced concepts rapidly.

Ending: The agency asked for stable funding to recover schedules and to mature prototypes; members requested detailed acquisition timelines and cost estimates to inform FY26 budget and NDAA deliberations.