Lockheed And Northrop Grumman Receive Contracts For Missile Defense Program

The U.S. Department of Defense's Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has awarded $1.6 billion in contracts to Lockheed Martin Corporation LMT and Northup Grumman Corporation NOC for technology development and risk reduction on the Next Generation Interceptor (NGI) program.

What Happened: The NGI program is designed to be the first line of defense against intercontinental ballistic missile attacks from hostile nations.

Northrop will partner with Raytheon Missiles & Defense, a business of Raytheon Technologies Corp RTX on its project, which is scheduled to run through May 2026. Lockheed will work with Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings Inc AJRD on its project, which is set to run through August 2025.

Boeing Co BA had also submitted a bid to participate in the NGI program, but the MDA declined to move forward with its proposal.

Related Link: Lockheed Martin And Omnispace Take On SpaceX With Plans For Space-Based Internet

Why It Matters: "NGI is the result of the first holistic technical assessment of homeland defenses the department has conducted since initial system operations began in 2004," said Vice Admiral Jon Hill, MDA director. "By planning to carry two vendors through technology development, MDA will maximize the benefits of competition to deliver the most effective and reliable homeland defense missile to the warfighter as soon as possible.

"Once fielded," Hill added, "this new homeland defense interceptor will be capable of defeating expected threat advances into the 2030s and beyond."

Related Link: Lockheed Martin Wins $4.9B US Space Force Geosynchronous Satellites Contract

(Photo courtesy Sanjay Acharya Wikimedia Commons.)