Source: U.S. ArmyThe U.S. Army has decided not to pursue a new interceptor missile to replace the venerable Patriot air defense missile, according to Maj. Gen. Frank Lozano, program executive officer for missiles and space.
The service has been working on a Lower-Tier Future Inceptor (LTFI) that could potentially replace the Patriot, but Lozano said the program would be extremely costly to complete. The Patriot is already a very capable weapon, and the Army will focus on continuing an upgrade path for the missile. The latest iteration used by the Army is the Patriot Advanced Capability 3 Missile Segment Enhancement (PAC-3 MSE).
The Army’s FY20 budget request included $8 million to start work on the LTFI program, with a planned investment of $232.9 million over the FY20 Future Years Defense Program. However, the service only received $2 million for initial studies in FY20 and no funding the following year.
The service’s FY25 request included $4.6 million for future air defense missile enabling technologies, including LTFI. The service also started receiving funding in FY23 for its Future Interceptor program element (PE), which refers to a designated line in the budget for research and development. That PE received $7.9 million in FY23 and $8 million in FY24. The Army requested $8.1 million in FY25 and has allocated $40.9 million between FY25 and FY29. Budget justification documents describe the future interceptor as a weapon to defend against emerging air, missile, and hypersonic threats in the lower tier of the BMD battlespace. Despite the initial investment, it now appears that funding allocated for the Future Interceptor program will be redistributed to other efforts in next year’s FY26 request.
At one point, Army officials said they want to bolster defenses between the upper-tier provided by THAAD and the Patriot’s lower-tier, suggesting LTFI could have been fielded alongside Patriot before replacing it.
The Army will also continue work on incorporating Patriot and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) air defense systems into its Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System (IBCS), which will link sensors and launchers from both systems. This approach is intended to enable Patriot and THAAD to work together against high-end threats.
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image sources
- Patriot: U.S. Army
