{"id":53072,"date":"2020-08-04T21:58:37","date_gmt":"2020-08-04T21:58:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2020\/08\/04\/mda-pauses-defensive-hypersonic-missile-design-effort-to-refocus-plan\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T23:53:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T23:53:23","slug":"mda-pauses-defensive-hypersonic-missile-design-effort-to-refocus-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/digital-show-dailies\/smd\/2020\/08\/04\/mda-pauses-defensive-hypersonic-missile-design-effort-to-refocus-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"MDA pauses defensive hypersonic missile design to refocus plan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 The Missile Defense Agency has paused its effort to design a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/land\/2020\/02\/05\/mda-taps-industry-to-build-interceptor-to-defend-against-hypersonic-threats\/\" target=_blank>defensive hypersonic missile<\/a> and wants to refocus its plan of attack by concentrating on near-term options that could feed into a more \u201celegant\u201d solution, according to Vice Adm. Jon Hill, the organization\u2019s director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The agency <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/digital-show-dailies\/smd\/2019\/08\/08\/hypersonics-by-the-dozens-us-industry-faces-manufacturing-challenge\/\" target=_blank>tapped industry<\/a> in January to design and build an interceptor capable of defending against <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/opinion\/commentary\/2020\/01\/10\/winning-the-hypersonic-race-is-a-national-imperative\/\" target=_blank>regional hypersonic weapons threats<\/a>, releasing a draft request for proposals to build prototypes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The request directed industry to submit whitepapers by March 19 to build a Hypersonic Defense Regional Glide Phase Weapons System interceptor. The plan then was to select at least one prime contractor to build prototypes that would culminate in a flight test, according to the draft RFP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But last month, the agency <a href=\"https:\/\/beta.sam.gov\/opp\/4cf38ec63fbd4a60a2bf599001ce57ab\/view?keywords=%22hypersonic%20glide%22&#038;sort=-relevance&#038;index=&#038;is_active=true&#038;page=1&#038;organization_id=300000429\" target=_blank>updated its posting<\/a> on the federal government\u2019s contract opportunities website and said the final solicitation was under review. It also said the agency was assessing COVID-19 impacts, technology maturation efforts, threat analyses, and empirical data from the recent joint Defense Department hypersonic testing in March \u201cto accurately establish the technical baseline and future end-state for hypersonic missile defense and the (RGPWS) effort.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Agency leaders said they expect to complete the review by the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/digital-show-dailies\/smd\/2019\/08\/05\/for-defense-industry-giants-theres-plenty-of-room-in-the-hypersonic-arena\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"170\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/OATK-Warheadtrees.png.png?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">For defense industry giants, there\u2019s plenty of room in the hypersonic arena<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">How are big defense firms thinking about the emerging hypersonic missile market?<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOne of the reasons we took the pause and said, \u2018We\u2019ll get back to you later in the year,\u2019 is we want to see what we can do in the very near-term, and I\u2019ll define the near-term as the mid-20s, and then feed the science and technology investments going so you can get to that farther-term, more elegant solution,\u201d Hill said at the virtual Space and Missile Defense Symposium Aug. 4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cBut we want to get that capability out there as soon as possible to defend against the hypersonic threat and we want to continue to build out that capability and we believe the glide phase, further back in that trajectory, is always better than the terminal systems that we got today,\u201d Hill added. He noted that the capability to take out threats in the terminal phase of flight is still critical. But, \u201cyou will want to move back that trajectory as far as you can,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Achieving \u201cglide phase\u201d defensive capability could come through a variety of technologies, he said, including different warhead types, different effector types and what kind of propulsion is used to get there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">MDA is on a long-term path to achieving hypersonic defensive capability, but it is focused first on its Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor (HBTSS), according to Hill. \u201cThat is number one, we have got to be able to sense, detect and get tracking and fire control information down to the shooter,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As the agency went through its analysis of alternatives for a defensive hypersonic interceptor, \u201cwe recognized there are two paths you can take to get to a weapon system,\u201d Hill said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">MDA is going to build off its command-and-control battle management and the effectors it has in place, Hill said, adding the agency can take advantage of terrestrial-based and mobile sea-based sensing today to get tracking data and push it where it needs to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe question is how long do you stay in the science and technology world? You should also take a look at a quick development path and that is what we are looking at now,\u201d Hill said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Missile Defense Agency has paused its effort to design a defensive hypersonic glide-phase interceptor. The agency&#8217;s director explains why.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":29272,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":99,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[160,29,12,36,19,99],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3330],"class_list":["post-53072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-digital-show-dailies","category-industry","category-newsletters","category-pentagon","category-smd"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"JSV4DE6KZVAN3G2UDQXJ4CZD6Q","arc_canonical_url":"\/digital-show-dailies\/smd\/2020\/08\/04\/mda-pauses-defensive-hypersonic-missile-design-effort-to-refocus-plan\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>MDA pauses defensive hypersonic missile design to refocus plan - Defense News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Missile Defense Agency has paused its effort to design a defensive hypersonic glide-phase interceptor. The agency&#039;s director explains why.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MDA pauses defensive hypersonic missile design to refocus plan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Missile Defense Agency has paused its effort to design a defensive hypersonic glide-phase interceptor. 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