Two years ago, in 2023, the U.S. Army finally decided that wants a replacement for its FIM-92 Stinger surface-to-air missile systems. The focus was on a new short-range air defense missile that is expected to significantly outperform its predecessor across various tactical and technical specifications. The competition involved two defense giants - Lockheed Martin and RTX (Raytheon), with work on this project beginning in the U.S. Department of Defense back in 2020. The program was named the Next Generation Short Range Interceptor (NGSRI).
In the fall of last year, one of the competitors, Lockheed Martin, announced that it would soon complete testing of its replacement for the Stinger missile, noting that they had already conducted tests on the missile at the beginning of 2024.
Recently, the publication Defense News released an article citing information obtained from Lockheed Martin, which stated that since the company received the contract for the new air defense missile under the NGSRI program, it has held two meetings with U.S. military officials and received positive feedback from them. This was highlighted by Randy Kryts, the vice president of advanced programs for the missile and fire control division.
It was also noted that this year, Lockheed Martin plans to conduct several flight tests of the new missile intended to replace the Stinger.
RTX is also preparing for testing, having reported that it successfully conducted 10 demonstrations of the interceptor missile's subsystems. The president of the company's air defense systems, Tom Laliberte, emphasized that the company "is confident in its ability to quickly provide the army with an affordable, low-risk, high-performance solution."
Specifically, it was mentioned that the enhanced seeker head developed by RTX can operate at a greater range than that of the Stinger, and the same can be said for the missile engine. The increased range for target detection and identification has been confirmed even in poor visibility conditions.
When the new air defense missile will finally enter production remains unknown, but it was mentioned back in 2023 that five years are being allocated for the transition to small-scale production.