During Wednesday's House Armed Services Committee hearing, Rep. Mark Messmer (R-IN) asked a military official about the state of the next generation of missile interceptors.
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00:00The gentleman yields back.
00:02The chair now recognizes the gentleman from Indiana, Mr. Messmer, for five minutes.
00:07Thank you, Chairman.
00:08General Collins, thank you for our conversation earlier today.
00:12Your predecessor testified that the glide phase interceptor program schedule, which
00:16anticipated in 2032, roughly, in his words, didn't meet the threat.
00:22Is MDA developing options to accelerate the program?
00:25Congressman, thank you, and thank you for your time this morning.
00:29I think missile defense is a key area that does need additional focus.
00:33The glide phase interceptor program was due to priorities and resourcing decisions last
00:38year.
00:41We were driven to make an earlier selection and a down select years earlier than planned.
00:46That has actually delayed the program in the funding line and profile that we have in the
00:50budget that you all received last year.
00:53We'll actually push that delivery to 2035.
00:56We are pursuing and evaluating acceleration options.
01:02It is primarily a resourcing at this point.
01:05There are some technology things that need to happen in the next three to five years.
01:10But then there is a resourcing and alignment issue that could accelerate that.
01:13We believe we could recover to 2032 with no increased level of programmatic risk across the program.
01:20But that's about the fastest we could to do today.
01:24We are looking and exploring other alternatives and options to potentially bring residual capability
01:29or partial capability from other weapon systems we have.
01:32But as it stands today, the only hypersonic maneuvering target defense capability we have is in the fleet
01:39with the SM6 and the sea-based terminal capability.
01:42Okay.
01:44What's the status of the next generation interceptors?
01:46Yes, sir.
01:47The next-gen interceptor, as briefed last year as well, due to a funding decision and priorities, we did down select to a single contractor last year a year and a half earlier than expected.
02:02So that program still continues on and is our largest and highest priority program for homeland defense.
02:08We have made significant progress at the system level.
02:11The NGI is the booster, the interceptor, but the broader weapon system is also now fully aligned and synchronized with the NGI program, which is a major feat for the enterprise.
02:23Last year, I briefed at our number one issue and risk going forward with either of the vendors at that time was the solid rocket motor effort
02:31and development.
02:32This is a new booster, a new development.
02:35And we have experienced delays and issues with that development and are expecting 18-month or more delay into the delivery of that initial capability.
02:46We've taken actions to shore up that development as well as bring in an additional source to help buy down the schedule risk of the development as we move forward.
02:57It still is the foundation for the future of ballistic ICBM protection of the homeland, and we are 100% committed and focused on that program.
03:06Okay.
03:08What do you see in the space-based interceptor's role in a layered defense to ballistic and hypersonic threats?
03:14Thanks, Congressman.
03:16We're certainly taking a closer look.
03:18The executive order has opened that up for us to take a closer look and move forward on developing that.
03:24We will work through the technology piece to better understand and move that as quickly as possible.
03:31If anything that we've learned over the last year, two years in Israel, Eastern Med, in Ukraine, is that a layered missile defense approach and design is paramount to the large rate sizes that we expect, that we've seen last year, and that we would expect in the future.
03:49And adding another layer, a space-based intercept layer, to that certainly looks to increase the performance of the overall architecture.
03:58As a follow-up to that, with General Guillaume, you've previously stated support for a layered missile defense approach with the space component.
04:05Could you go into more detail on how that would fit in the NORTHCOM's perspective from a defense standpoint?
04:11Congressman, having a layered approach from the NORAD and NORTHCOM's perspective is essential to make sure that we can identify, track, and guide on all threats.
04:24Okay.
04:26General Collins, as you know, Iron Beam is an Israeli-developed directed energy defense system designed to defend against short-range rockets, drones, artillery, and mortar bombs.
04:37Can you discuss where things stand with our Iron Beam procurement and any funds set aside for this?
04:44Yes, Congressman.
04:46On the US side, there are no funds at this point set aside for Iron Beam as part of the Israeli supplemental from last year.
04:53There is a portion of that that we are working with our Israeli missile defense organization partners to execute and bring that money to them to continue the development and fielding of Iron Beam.
05:07One thing that we have negotiated in that agreement, though, was 50% of that investment is a payback into the US economy.
05:14So while it goes to Israel, they have to have half of their, half of the contracts, half of the money comes back into building our industry base.
05:21And so that supplemental actually will serve to increase the industry base skill set and capability for, that will pay back into our directed energy efforts as we move forward.
05:35Yield back my time.