MDA Picks Five Firms to Develop Low‑Cost Missile Interceptors

The agency is pursuing mass‑producible interceptors to cut per‑unit costs so the U.S. can buy and field far larger magazines against denser missile threats.

Overview

The Missile Defense Agency has selected five companies spanning a rocket‑motor startup, an autonomous weapons developer, a major government contractor, and engineering and sensor specialists to design a new class of lower‑cost interceptors.
MDA also launched a separate effort to strip cost from kill vehicles by seeking simpler, mass‑producible components and new designs to preserve performance while lowering price per shot.
The White House issued a national space transportation policy directing the Defense Department to assess barriers to commercially provided launches and to evaluate whether national‑security launches can be supported within 48 hours during a 180‑day review.
The Army ran an F‑250 fitted with Forterra’s autonomy stack through semi‑autonomous mine‑breaching and drone‑defense trials at Fort Bragg and plans further assessment at the National Training Center in October.
The Information Technology Industry Council urged the Pentagon to accept reciprocity between CMMC and FedRAMP and to clarify how AI tools should be treated as DoD reforms its cybersecurity certification rules, which could reduce duplicate compliance burdens for industry.