Missile Defense

Hypersonic missiles that travel at Mach 5 and above are potential game-changers for military planners. The US Department of Defense has completed a test of its Common Hypersonic Glide Body, which will be the basis for a future class of such weapons.

Lockheed Martin has completed a successful test of its Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) on the first go. Being developed for the US Army's PrSM program, the next-generation long-range missile was launched from the White Sands Missile Range.

BAE Systems has been awarded a US Navy US$36.7 million contract to build an advanced dual-band Fiber-Optic Towed Decoy (FOTD) designed to protect military aircraft from missile attacks. It works by jamming or confusing missile radar systems.

Researchers are looking to the common dragonfly for clues to develop smaller, more efficient missile defenses. By replicating the predatory insect's brain in a computer algorithm, the goal is to create interceptors that can lock on to threats much faster and achieve a much higher kill ratio.

In a recent US Army live fire exercise, an automatic countermeasure system successfully deflected 15 out of 15 anti-tank guided missile attacks. The Lockheed Martin Modular Active Protection Systems detected incoming missiles and deflected them off target by jamming their guidance signals.

The Royal Navy has showed off its latest missile in the first successful test of the Sea Ceptor air defence system. Britain's Defence Minister Harriett Baldwin announced​ that the live-fire test of the supersonic missile took place off the coast of Scotland from the Type 23 frigate HMS Argyll.

Boeing and Northrop Grumman have stolen a march on rival Lockheed Martin, announcing today in separate releases that they'd won US Air Force contracts to develop preliminary designs for the next generation of American ICBMs.

The US Defense Department announced today that for the first time its Ground-based Midcourse Defense system has intercepted an ICBM dummy warhead somewhere over the Pacific Ocean in a demonstration of the system’s capability to detect, engage, and destroy targets while still in space.

Russia has moved to update its nuclear arsenal with an extreme-range, massive payload ICBM designed specifically to defeat anti-missile systems. Capable of traversing the planet's poles and blowing up Texas in one hit, meet the RS-28 Sarmat, or Satan 2.

The US Navy recently conducted tests off the coast of California of Raytheon's SeaRAM, which fires supersonic, self-guided missiles against in-coming close-range threats. During these exercises, the USS Coronado successfully detected, tracked, and engaged an inbound target.

BAE Systems has submitted a proposal to the US Army’s Common Infrared Countermeasure (CIRCM) program. Once operational, the system will safeguard rotary and light fixed-wing aircraft, increasing survivability against the threat posed by infrared missiles.

Lockheed Martin has conducted the first guided test flight of the Miniature Hit-to-Kill interceptor rocket intended to provide protection from rockets, artillery, and mortar fire on the battlefield.