RTX and Lockheed Martin are moving into flight tests this year in a head-to-head competition to develop a replacement for the U.S. Army’s Stinger missile.
The Army is seeking a replacement for its short-range air defence (SHORAD) missile that offers improved speed, resistance to jamming, and enhanced ability to target harder-to-hit threats, such as drones.
In September 2023, the Army awarded contracts to RTX and Lockheed Martin to competitively develop this next-generation missile. The RTX-manufactured Stinger missiles are currently used in the Army’s Maneuver-Short Range Air Defense (MSHORAD) system, as well as in a man-portable configuration for air defence.
The Army had long intended to pursue a next-generation interceptor for short-range air defence, but the need for a new missile has intensified as Stinger missiles were sent to Ukraine in response to Russia’s invasion. The U.S. no longer builds new Stinger missiles, but it refurbishes older models. To replenish its stockpile, the Army aims to replace these old missiles with new technology.
RTX announced the completion of 10 subsystem demonstrations of its Next-Generation Short-Range Interceptor (NGSRI), marking an important milestone in meeting the Army’s requirements for range and performance. In a statement on Tuesday, Tom Laliberty, president of Land & Air Defense Systems at RTX, expressed confidence in the company’s ability to deliver an affordable, low-risk, and highly producible solution for the Army.
The tests demonstrated the NGSRI’s advanced seeker’s range, which surpassed that of the current Stinger both indoors and outdoors. Its flight rocket motor also showed the potential to extend the missile’s intercept range. Additionally, the system demonstrated superior capabilities in detecting and identifying aerial targets in low-visibility environments. The new Stinger warhead also proved its precise lethality against a wide range of threats.
The missile system will soon be handed over to U.S. soldiers and Marines for a touchpoint exercise, allowing them to provide feedback. A system flight demonstration is also scheduled for later this year.
Lockheed Martin, in response, reported that since it was awarded the contract to develop a Stinger replacement, it has conducted two soldier touchpoints with positive feedback from the soldiers present. The company is also preparing for multiple flight tests this year.
Randy Crites, vice president of Advanced Programs for Lockheed Martin’s Missiles and Fire Control division, stated that the solution brings performance improvements to both mounted and dismounted MSHORAD operations, offering dismounted soldiers and marines a capability that rivals mounted platforms.
The Stinger missile competition is expected to take five years to develop, qualify, and move into low-rate production. According to Maj. Gen. Frank Lozano, who oversees the Program Executive Office Missiles and Space, each company will develop and build a “very small quantity” of missiles in the first two years. At the end of this period, the Army will conduct a “fly-off” to compare the performance of both systems.
If both missiles perform well, the Army will continue with both vendors into the second phase of rapid prototyping, during which the teams will tweak and improve the designs and build another round of prototypes. This will be followed by another fly-off. At the end of this phase, one vendor will be selected to move into production.
Lozano emphasised the Army’s flexibility, saying, “If one vendor does very well and the second does very poorly, we could off-ramp one vendor at the end of the two-year period and proceed with just one for the final three years of the programme. However, we would prefer to maintain the competition as long as possible.”
The race to replace the Stinger missile is a crucial part of the Army’s strategy to bolster its short-range air defence capability in the face of evolving threats.
