Northrop Grumman Corp. has a go-ahead from the U.S. Missile Defense Agency to produce five Modified Ballistic Re-Entry Vehicles (MBRV-11) for testing the Next Generation Interceptor (NGI) being developed by MDA for domestic defense against hypersonic missile attacks. The U.S. Dept. of Defense (DOD) has set 2028 as the date for MDA to begin fielding the interceptors.
The company has previously said it was using digital engineering capabilities to accelerate the design and development of the interceptor. Working with the MDA, it proceeded from contract award through Critical Design Review in less than 16 months.
Northrop’s assignment is to develop the technology for intercepting missiles in their glide phase.
The MBRV-11 consists of a baseline vehicle design with four optional enhancement kits representing different capabilities, to provide mission flexibility.
Testing of the MBRV-11 will involve integrating it with intermediate-range and intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) targets, to simulate the actual missile threats it is intended to intercept.
The contract from MDA calls for five vehicles to support five missile defense test demonstrations, with a first flight test scheduled in 2027. Northrop Grumman hardware and software designs, common system architectures, and heritage avionics support the aggressive development and production schedule.
In line with the accelerated development schedule, Northrop Grumman reported it “procured all hardware needed to produce the target vehicles and began qualification testing prior to Critical Design Review, and began system-level avionics testing immediately after.”
“Our deep mission experience enabled us to compress the development timeline by combining the Systems Requirements Review and Preliminary Design Review, begin qualification testing ahead of Critical Design Review, and quickly transition into production to meet the customer’s need for an early operational capability,” explained Robin Heard, Northrop’s director for targets.
Separately, MDA recently awarded Northrop Grumman a contract to upgrade its Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) and ICBM target vehicles and integrate with MBRV-11, meaning the company is the “end-to-end provider for the targets, including payload, and boost vehicle.”
