Northrop Grumman is developing the Modified Ballistic Re-Entry Vehicle-11 (MBRV-11) supporting the Missile Defense Agency’s (MDA) Integrated Master Test Plan (IMTP) to test the Next Generation Interceptor (NGI). Through close partnership with MDA, Northrop Grumman significantly expedited the development timeline for MBRV-11, moving from contract award through Critical Design Review (CDR) in less than 16 months.
Northrop Grumman’s MBRV-11 is a new front-end that consists of a baseline vehicle design, with four optional enhancement kits that represent varying capabilities to provide mission flexibility. MBRV-11 will be integrated onto Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) and Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) targets to emulate sophisticated missile threats the NGI is designed to defeat.
The contract includes five vehicles to support five missile defense test demonstrations, with a first flight test scheduled in 2027. Northrop Grumman’s flight-proven hardware and software designs, common system architectures and heritage avionics support the aggressive development and production schedule.
MDA recently awarded Northrop Grumman a contract to upgrade its IRBM and ICBM target vehicles and integrate with MBRV-11, making the company the end-to-end provider for the targets, including payload and boost vehicle. The program supports MDA’s IMTP that includes ground test, flight test and warfighter training and combatant command exercise events.