On February 7, the U.S. State Department approved a potential Patriot refurbishment package to Taiwan. The deal is estimated to cost $100 million and includes “engineering services support, designed to sustain, maintain, and improve” the Patriot air defense systems already based in Taiwan.
On January 12, the CSIS Missile Defense Project hosted Lieutenant General L. Neil Thurgood for a conversation on the Army Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office (RCCTO) and its portfolio of air defense and long-range strike prototypes.
The 2022 budget request for missile defense and defeat seeks, but does not yet achieve, alignment with the reality of long-term strategic competition.
On November 19, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency chose Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Raytheon Missiles and Defense to complete an “accelerated concept design” of the Glide Phase Interceptor (GPI). The GPI is MDA’s primary hypersonic defense program and is designed to intercept hypersonic weapons kinetically in the endoatmospheric glide phase. GPIs will equip U.S....
On November 18, CSIS and the U.S. Naval Institute hosted Rear Admiral Tom Druggan for a conversation on Aegis air and missile defense.
On October 21, a U.S. Department of Defense hypersonic vehicle test failed after the system’s booster malfunctioned shortly after launch. According to a Pentagon statement, the hypersonic system being tested was not associated with the Army/Navy-developed Common Hypersonic Glide Body weapon currently under development. The flight test attempt reportedly took place in Alaska, but officials...
On October 13, the U.S. Army successfully flight tested the Precision Strike Missile (PrSM), a short-range ballistic missile, to an undisclosed range of over 499 km. In a press statement, missile producer Lockheed Martin stated that the test demonstrated PrSM’s “longest flight to date.” The PrSM program entered its engineering and manufacturing development phase in...
On September 27, the U.S. Defense Department announced the successful flight test of its Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC), a scramjet-propelled hypersonic missile. In the test, conducted the week of September 19, the hydrocarbon-fueled missile successfully released from an aircraft before cruising to speeds over Mach 5. HAWC is a DARPA-U.S. Air Force technology demonstration...
On September 17, the U.S. Navy launched two unarmed Trident II D5 Life Extended (LE) submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM) in a scheduled flight test in waters off Cape Canaveral, Florida. The missiles, launched from Ohio-class submarine USS Wyoming (SSBN-742), landed in the Atlantic Ocean within the U.S. Eastern Test Range instrumented complex. The launches mark...
On August 23, Israel’s Ministry of Defense announced successful flight tests of the Iron Dome missile defense system with the United States. The test took place at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico and demonstrated the first of two Iron Dome batteries configured for U.S. Army service under the Interim Fire Protection Capability (IFPC)...
