The Missile Defense Agency and industry representatives held a meeting at MDA’s Alabama headquarters to discuss potential ways of targeting hypersonic missiles and lay the groundwork for the Hypersonic Defense Regional Glide Phase Weapon System, Breaking Defense reported Wednesday.
“They’re going after the regional as opposed to the homeland mission,†Tom Karako, director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said of MDA’s efforts.
The new program comes as the Department of Defense works to accelerate hypersonic defense initiatives amid recent efforts of Russia and China to deploy such weapons.
A defense bill the Senate sent to the White House Tuesday includes $230.9M in funds to advance hypersonic defense programs. House and Senate appropriators also approved $108M in additional funding in support of MDA’s Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor program.
