On Tuesday, Lockheed Martin said it would compete for the Missile Defense Agency's Next-Generation Interceptor contract. Boeing and a Raytheon-Northrop Grumman team have already announced their intention to compete to develop the new interceptor meant to protect the homeland from Iranian and North Korean ICBM threats.
Also on Tuesday, Raytheon and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems announced they formed a joint venture to build the Iron Dome missile defense system in the United States. The partnership will build a new facility which will build Iron Dome systems, the Tamir interceptor, and the SkyHunter missile. The Iron Dome systems will be delivered to the U.S. Army, filling a cruise missile defense capability gap while its Indirect Fires Protection Capability (IFPC) program remains in development.
Also on Tuesday, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy, Plans, and Capabilities, Mr. Victorino Mercado said that North Korea was continuing to work aggressively to develop long-range nuclear missiles capable of threatening the U.S. mainland. Mercado also noted that Iran possesses well over 1,000 missiles and continues to modernize and proliferate its missile systems, which it also uses "as a valuable tool of coercion in the broader Middle East region".
On Wednesday, the Department of Defense highlighted Navy Vice Admiral Jon A. Hill's remarks on the growing threat of advanced cruise missiles and hypersonic weapons. Hill spoke to the need of space-based sensors to defend against these threats and stated that the Missile Defense Agency would suffer only minor delays in the delivery of systems due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Thursday, it was reported that the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) was nearing its planned FTM-44 flight test, which would simulate a defense of Hawaii using an Arleigh Burke destroyed and a Standard Missile-3 Block IIA, to prove the ship can provide missile defense if ground-based homeland defense systems failed. The USS John Finn (DDG-113) will conduct the test, which will happen by the end of the year.
On Friday, the release of the Japanese government's "Missile Defense Study Team" report showed the report's recommendations focused on strengthening Integrated Air and Missile Defense and improving deterrence in the U.S-Japan alliance as a whole. The report included a push to acquire the ability to attack an adversary's missile launching capabilities and facilities, which would be a controversial step in pacifist Japan.
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