Facing competition from fast-growing startups, Lockheed Martin is speeding up production of an “affordable, scalable” hypersonic glide body, dubbed the Next Generation Glide Body, the firm said in a June 24 release.
The new body is scheduled for flight in late 2027, a company spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine.
When asked what makes the munition body new, a Lockheed spokesperson keyed in on manufacturing approaches that make it both affordable and “balances accelerated munition production” while continuing to provide advanced capabilities that can “engage targets from stand-off ranges, unlike stand-in systems that place platforms and warfighters at greater risk.”
“We designed this capability from the outset to provide greater value to our customers while delivering an operational advantage to the warfighter,” Johnathon Caldwell, Lockheed’s vice president for strategic and missile defense systems, said in the release.
The release does not provide details about what platforms might use the hypersonic glide body.
“NXGB is designed for integration across cross-domain platforms, enabling flexible deployment across a range of operational environments,” a Lockheed spokesperson said via email. “It supports all service branches.”
Lockheed is currently developing the AGM-183A Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon for the Air Force, and the Dark Eagle Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon for the Army and Navy.
Both systems are boost-glide weapons, meaning solid rocket boosters power the vehicle to speeds of Mach 5 or higher, and the vehicle then coasts or “glides” to its target while being able to maneuver along the way.
ARRW in particular has faced a rocky development history. Lockheed won the contract for the program in 2018, and the missile progressed quickly to testing in 2021. But it had a mixed track record in testing, and in 2023, officials say they would not move forward with production and would instead focus on an alternate concept, the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile.
In the fiscal 2026 budget, however, the Air Force revived the program with a $387 million production request. In 2027, that increased to $452 million.
Lockheed is also working on the defensive end of hypersonics with the Next Generation Interceptor. The Missile Defense Agency selected Lockheed in 2024 to build the NGI. The company opened a scalable factory for the weapon in Alabama in June, Air & Space Forces Magazine reported.
Dark Eagle, the surface-to-surface hypersonic weapon, started with a “common hypersonic glide body” developed by both the Army and Navy. The Army started fielding the missile in late 2025.
While Lockheed is working on a new glide body, it is facing competition in the form of startup companies eager to help the U.S. close its hypersonic gap with China. Perhaps chief among these is Castelion, who is similarly pitching its Blackbeard missile as affordable and mass-produceable. In April, the firm won a $105 million contract with the Navy, followed by a $23.4 million delivery order earlier this month.
