Missile Defense

Northrop Grumman's chief executive said today restricted work made up about a quarter of the company's sales in 2019.

North Korea could challenge the ability of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system to protect the U.S. homeland as soon as 2025, according to an assessment by U.S. Northern Command -- revealed by a lawmaker and verified by a top Pentagon official -- that anticipates continued advances in Pyongyang's long-range missile program.

As the Air Force readies a new space acquisition and integration office, one of its early efforts is to identify roles and responsibilities for existing organizations that develop space capabilities, including the Space Development Agency, the Space Rapid Capabilities Office and the Space and Missile Systems Center.

The Defense Department has tapped Northrop Grumman to lead Glide Break -- an advanced technology development program that aims to develop components that one day could enable a lightweight interceptor to defeat hypersonic boost-glide weapons at very long range.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper called on Congress today to take a "leap" and support the Pentagon's plans to divest legacy weapon systems so new investments can be made in emerging technologies.

The Navy needs to send clear signals to the hypersonics industrial base in anticipation of the coming transition from developing prototypes to producing the weapon systems at scale, according to the service's acting chief civilian.

Nearly a year after it was created, the Space Development Agency is today beginning its work in earnest by asking industry to propose a wide range of "good enough" systems, technologies and capabilities that "enable leap-ahead improvements" that can be rapidly put on orbit in two-year tranches beginning in fiscal year 2022 in order to begin fleshing out a new National Defense Space Architecture.

The Navy's top advocate for surface forces said the DDG-1000 -- a low signature destroyer capable of independent, open-ocean patrols whose role in the fleet the service is still defining -- should be armed with long-range hypersonic weapons to "put the fear of God in our adversaries."

The Defense Department owes lawmakers a report next year on how to integrate Navy and Army space capabilities into the new Space Force, but the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says the department needs to move faster.