Vice Adm. Jon Hill, director of the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), said MDA is advancing the development of an interceptor that can defend against hypersonic missile threats, Defense News reported Friday.

“We’ve got some great feedback coming from industry, it is something that can be done, and we shouldn’t be afraid to go do it … and so we’re taking that on,” Hill told the publication at a symposium Thursday.

He said the agency evaluated its ballistic missile defense capability and found that it already had some assets that could help address hypersonic weapons, including the Sea-Based X-Band Terminal and the Aegis ship.

Hill noted that the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor and the SPY-6 radar are some of the future initiatives that are expected to come online. HBTSS is a satellite that could be deployed in low-Earth orbit to detect hypersonic missiles in flight. SPY-6 will further help strengthen the ability to identify hypersonic threats.

He said the agency would focus on targeting hypersonic weapons in the glide flight phase.

MDA asked industry to submit white papers on platforms for a glide phase interceptor in April. Hill said he expects a systems requirements review to occur later this year and that MDA would select industry teams to build the interceptor.

He noted that the agency will initially focus on providing the U.S. Navy with a capability and once the effort becomes successful, “we can move it to the land-based battery to protect other things against that sort of hypersonic threat.” 

The Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has made a modeling software suite designed to provide details on every building within the U.S. and support the creation of digital twins that represent these buildings.

Automatic Building Energy Modeling or AutoBEM can use publicly available data to help urban planners identify areas that require an update, ORNL said Wednesday.

AutoBEM uses satellite imagery and other public data sources to provide information on a building's size, energy makeup and other externally observable characteristics such as floor count, window count and heating, ventilation and cooling systems.

Joshua New leads ORNL’s research team, which publicly released the AutoBEM models earlier in 2021.

“To build AutoBEM, we looked at many of the available data sources and created partnerships with the people that are in the business of generating this data, like satellite, aerial and street view imagery, LiDAR data and other types of databases,” New said.

DOE expects the tool would help buildings contribute to the department's goal of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, as buildings represent 40 percent of U.S. energy consumption.

Officials from the U.S. Army and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) highlighted collaborative efforts to get GEOINT data and imagery into the hands of military personnel for use in their future missions.

Army Geospatial Center Director Gary Blohm and Maj. Gen. Charlie Cleveland, associate director of operations at NGA, were among the participants in the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation's virtual event held Wednesday, the Army Futures Command said Friday.

“As we look to where the Army is going in the future, with Multi-Domain Operations and everything else, we think Army Futures Command is really a place where we need to be further tied in, and we want to continue to work very, very closely with the Army Futures Command,” said Maj. Gen. Charlie Cleveland, associate director of operations at NGA.

Blohm said that the center is working with the private sector in efforts to help decision-makers access geospatial information at the tactical edge.

The branch awarded Leidos a four-year, $600 million contract in early August to provide operation and technology integration support to AGC’s High-Resolution Three Dimensional Geospatial Information program.

At the USGIF event, Cleveland noted that NGA wants to continue working closely with Army Futures Command as the service is aiming to realize the multidomain operations concept.