Vice Adm. Jon Hill, director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, said MDA is considering a partnership with Japan to work on a program that seeks to develop an interceptor that can counter a hypersonic weapon during the glide phase of flight, Defense News reported Monday.
“Right now we’re exploring the opportunity to just identify what those cooperative development areas would be,” Hill said of the Glide Phase Interceptor program.
He stated that the U.S. and Japan are looking for common parts as the East Asian country seeks to explore the interceptor’s front end containing the warhead.
MDA is requesting $209 million in fiscal 2024 budget for the GPI competition. In June 2022, the agency awarded contract modifications to Raytheon Technologies and Northrop Grumman to continue development work on their GPI designs.
“The challenge is when you’ve got two [companies] in play, that means Japan has to sign up to do two different designs, knowing that one of them may be a throwaway,” the vice admiral said.
Vice Adm. Hill will be delivering the mid-day keynote address at the upcoming Industrial Space Defense Summit, from the Potomac Officers Club. It will be held at the Hilton-McLean in Virginia on April 27 from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Don’t miss this highly informative symposium — complete with complementary breakfast and lunch. Register here.
