SpaceNews.com
• Sandra Erwin
The Pentagon is using Golden Dome live-fire exercises to evaluate technologies outside established military programs, including new software and sensor-to-shooter connections. The testing is intended to inform the planned U.S. missile-defense shield while examining alternative approaches to acquiring and integrating capabilities.
Missile Systems & Strategic Weapons
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Meteor established the benchmark for Europe’s beyond-visual-range air combat, but changing operational demands are challenging its position. The region now faces a strategic question: what capabilities, technologies and industrial priorities should define its next generation of air-to-air missiles?
The Army plans to test additional designs next year as it expands the competition to replace the FIM-92 Stinger. Lockheed Martin and Raytheon are already developing rival surface-to-air missile systems, creating a wider field for a requirement shaped by evolving battlefield air-defense demands.
The Pentagon is using Golden Dome live-fire exercises to evaluate technologies outside established military programs, including new software and sensor-to-shooter connections. The testing is intended to inform the planned U.S. missile-defense shield while examining alternative approaches to acquiring and integrating capabilities.
The U.S. Navy has begun testing the low-cost Blackbeard hypersonic missile on the F/A-18 Super Hornet and is targeting a limited operational arsenal within two years. The effort points to a potentially faster, more affordable path to deploying hypersonic capability from existing tactical aircraft.
A Washington Post account published May 6 offers the most complete public picture yet of what Iran’s missiles did to American bases in the Gulf. The report’s finding that shutter control worked underscores a vulnerability for commercial imagery providers and their customers.
Northrop Grumman CEO Kathy Warden said the Trump administration’s Golden Dome space defense system is becoming tangible for defense contractors and that Northrop expects a “decent share” of the work. The program could ultimately cost more than $1 trillion, according to Warden.
Colorado-based Ursa Major plans to merge with a blank-check company and enter public markets in early 2027 at a valuation of about $2.3 billion. The transaction is intended to fund the shift from development and low-rate production to full-rate output of rocket engines, hypersonic systems and solid rocket motors.
The U.S. has approved a potential sale of Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System rockets to Italy, a deal intended to bolster the Italian Air Force’s ability to counter drones. The notification adds an air-launched precision weapon to Italy’s evolving response to the growing unmanned threat.
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