Defense One:

The Pentagon has chosen Lockheed Martin and a Northrop Grumman-Raytheon Technologies team to develop a new generation of interceptors to protect the United States from long-range missile attacks.

The announcement comes just days after North Korea reportedly fired missiles in response to U.S. and South Korean military exercises. The companies selected by the Pentagon Tuesday will now compete against one another; a winner is expected to be chosen to build up to 20 the Next Generation Interceptors in the mid-2020s.

“Today’s awards are an important step in modernizing our Missile Defense System,” Stacy Cummings, a senior Pentagon official who is performing the duties of undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, said in a statement. “NGI plays an important role in our homeland defense, and our acquisition strategy is ensuring the department maximizes innovation to keep pace with rapidly advancing threats.”

Lockheed said in a statement that its winning bid used technology from its THAAD battlefield missile interceptors.

In an emailed statement, Scott Lehr, Northrop Grumman vice president and general manager, launch and missile defense, said: “There is a critical timeline for fielding this capability and our team brings together the industry’s top missile defense talent, agile design and manufacturing practices, and state-of-the-art operational factories to support the MDA and our nation’s defense against these evolving threats”…

Click here to read the full article.