The US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has approved Northrop Grumman and Raytheon Technologies team’s system requirements review (SRR) for the Next Generation Interceptor (NGI) programme.
NGI advanced interceptor is designed to protect the US against intercontinental ballistic missile attacks.
The latest milestone comes after the team showcased its NGI Common Software Factory, which allows quick development, integration and delivery in a DevSecOps scenario.
Northrop Grumman launch and missile defence systems vice-president and general manager Scott Lehr said: “We’re leveraging our two decades of performance on the current
“With our combined workforce, extensive expertise and state-of-the-art facilities, we will deliver a highly capable new interceptor that will protect our nation against long-range missile threats for decades to come.”
With the completion of the first major technical review of the programme, the team will now move to initial system design and undertake activities involving additional risk reduction testing, and critical component qualification.
To support quick NGI deployment, the team is making use of ‘high-fidelity model-based systems engineering and hardware manufacturing’ in customer-certified units.
Northrop Grumman also noted that the team is performing ‘internally funded risk reduction hardware development and testing’.
Raytheon Missiles & Defense Strategic Missile Defense vice-president Tay Fitzgerald said: “Raytheon is the nation’s provider of kill vehicle payloads that manoeuvre in space to destroy missile threats, with 47 successful exo-atmospheric intercepts achieved to date.
“Our digital system design approach gives us high confidence in our solution going into the preliminary design review.”
In March this year, MDA awarded two contracts to Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman Systems for the NGI programme.
