The picture shows the launcher of the US military's "Enduring Shield" air defense system. (Taken from U.S. Army DVIDS)
[Reporter Wu Zheyu/Comprehensive Report] Faced with the threats of hypersonic missiles, cruise missiles and a large number of suicide drones, the U.S. Army is significantly adjusting its air defense weapons procurement strategy. It is currently promoting at least five new interceptor projects, hoping to break the past model of high reliance on a single missile for the air defense system and establish a multi-weapon combination covering high, medium and low-level air defense. Among them, the low-cost interceptor missile specially developed for the "Patriot" system requires a unit price of no more than 1 million US dollars, which is about a quarter of the average unit price of the PAC-3 MSE currently in service.
Military news website "The War Zone" reported that U.S. Army Lieutenant General Frank Lozano, who is responsible for firepower system procurement, recently stated at the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) annual conference that the U.S. military will continue to increase PAC-3 MSE procurement and target an annual production of 2,000 missiles. However, in the face of future demand that may require 4,000, 6,000 or even 8,000 missiles, simply expanding the production of existing weapons is no longer enough.
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Currently, the US military is promoting five new projects, including "Low-Cost Interceptor" (LCI), "New Generation Short-Range Interceptor" (NGSRI), "New Generation Counter-UAV Missile" (NGCM), "Second Interceptor" and "Future Interceptor", which are developed to target different air defense threats.
Among them, the LCI project hopes to provide the "Patriot" system with low-cost missiles with a unit price of no more than US$1 million; the "Future Interceptor" will focus on improving the interception capabilities of hypersonic missiles and other high-level threats, forming a high-low mix.
The NGSRI project aims to replace the existing "Stinger" anti-aircraft missiles and requires the new weapon to be compatible with existing vehicle-mounted and individual launchers; NGCM will develop new anti-drone interceptors and integrate them into the existing "Coyote" launch system.
As for the "second interceptor", it mainly adds a second missile to the "Enduring Shield" mid-level air defense system, hoping to provide a stronger cruise missile interception capability than the current AIM-9X "Sidewinder". Currently, Lockheed Martin is competing with Boeing and Anduril cooperation teams.
It is worth noting that the U.S. Army is also preparing to change the past procurement method of selecting only a single winning bidder. Lozano said that the "second interceptor" will hold a live-fire competition in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2027. In addition to the existing teams, companies that have previously been unsuccessful but continue to invest in research and development are also welcome to re-participate. NGSRI and NGCM also plan to conduct a new round of evaluation during this period.
In addition, the LCI project not only accepts complete missile solutions, but also opens component suppliers and system integrators to form teams to compete, hoping to reduce costs and speed up mass production through more supply sources.
Lozano pointed out that the Iran war, the Middle East conflict and the Ukraine-Russia war have shown that modern air defense not only requires high-performance interceptors, but also must consider ammunition inventory depth, replenishment speed and cost-effectiveness. In particular, the production of high-end missiles often takes months or even years. Over-reliance on a single supplier may become a risk for long-term operations.
In the future, the US military will continue to retain high-performance weapons such as PAC-3 MSE, and at the same time increase the source of low-cost interceptors and suppliers, allowing air defense forces to select appropriate weapons according to the target threat level, avoid using expensive missiles to intercept low-cost drones in large numbers, and strengthen sustained combat capabilities.
