The director of the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) on Thursday said the agency is looking at what additional current systems could be used or modified to defend against hypersonic threats in the short term after Congress pushed the agency to quicken deployment of the hypersonic defense program of record.
The fiscal year 2024 defense authorization act directed MDA to develop the Glide Phase Intercept (GPI) program faster than planned
. It specifically pushed MDA to have GPI reach the initial operating capacity (IOC) by the end of 2029, with at least 12 interceptor missiles. It also directs MDA to reach full operating capability with at least 24 interceptors by 2032 (Defense Daily, Dec. 21, 2023).
Fiscal year 2025 budget request documents said the timetable for GPI is to reach the preliminary design review in FY ‘30, critical design review in FY ‘33 and delivery of the interceptors is now scheduled for FY ‘35 (Defense Daily, March 18).
“We’ve been tasked to think creatively and bring capability sooner – ‘29, ‘30, and that is really going to take maybe some different style of thinking than traditionally starting a new weapon. We’ve got to figure out it’s most likely got to be a weapon that already exists today. What can we do to get the most out of it?” MDA Director Air Force Lt. Gen. Heath Collins said at an event at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
This is in reference to how the FY ‘24 defense authorization act both sped up the plan for GPI and asked MDA to come up with other hypersonic defense options in a report.
“We do need to sharpen our pencils, and we’re beginning to take a look at where else in the system, on the interceptor side, where else in the system could we bring something to bear, whether it’s something within the missile defense system of today, or maybe it’s something not in the missile defense system of today,” he said.
He confirmed he looks at accelerating hypersonic defense systems in two lanes and subtly pushed back at Hill attempts to quicken GPI despite MDA protests that there are limits in what can be done.
“One, what is the safest, most reliable way to increase or accelerate GPI, but still make it a fundamentally viable program? You know, I could claim that we’re going to do it in ‘28 and skip all the testing, and then I would be a case study in acquisition school. So I want to increase that as quickly as possible, absolutely.”
“Then I also want to see what else we could bring to bear so that between now and then we’re better protected, wherever we may be. Hypersonic weapons are being used today, and the inventories of our threats are increasing in the years to come,” he continued.
Collins said the non-GPI options will not solve all the kinds of hypersonic threats GPI seeks to counter in 2035, but it will be important to get to that place.
“End to end new weapon systems aren’t created overnight, and so that is going to be a very deliberate focused standard process to get that new capability to the fleet first and grow from there, to bring that long look capability to the hypersonic fight,” he said.
Collins noted with his experience as a weapons buyer for the Air Force he knows MDA might have to “cast our net a little wider” to other agencies that might have a system MDA can bring to bear in the near term.
He also compared this to how the Standard Missile-6 missile system now has some limited capability to defend against hypersonic weapons.
Collins underscored SM-6 was never originally envisioned as being used for hypersonic defense, but it has now been explored and other systems might fit the bill in the same way.
In 2022, MDA downselected to RTX [RTX] and Northrop Grumman [NOC] to continue refining GPI concepts (Defense Daily, June 24, 2022).
Earlier this year Collins said MDA plans to downselect to the final winner before the end of this fiscal year.
In April, Chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) said GPI was being downselected five years earlier than previously planned, before preliminary design review, as a way to save money (Defense Daily, April 16).
At the time, Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Heidi Shyu confirmed lower GPI funding caused the schedule to slip later between the FY 2024 and 2025 budget requests.
Shyu said this was not just about the budget caps imposed by the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 but also that DoD leadership has competing priorities.
In May, the DoD and Japan Ministry of Defense finalized a cooperative agreement to jointly develop and build GPI for both countries (Defense Daily, May 16).