# Project MD29 — Hypersonic Defense

**Program element:** 0604181C — Hypersonic Defense  
**Project:** MD29  
**Component:** Defense-Wide  
**Appropriation:** 0400 — RDT&E, Defense-Wide  
**Budget Activity:** 4 — Advanced Component Development & Prototypes  
**Vintage:** President's Budget PB2027  
**Canonical URL:** https://hitchintel.com/programs/0604181C/MD29  
**Parent:** https://hitchintel.com/programs/0604181C

## Summary

Project MD29 — Hypersonic Defense requests $205.7M in FY2027, 96% of the $213.8M requested for program element 0604181C, up 23% on FY2026. 2 R-2A activities decompose the request, 1 new this cycle. Lockheed Martin is the largest named R-3 performer at $88.7M, 43% of the project's FY2027 R-3 total.

**Markets:** Hypersonic Strike — matched on the project title only, and no market size is quoted.

## Funding profile

| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | Actual | 168.8 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 167.5 |
| FY2027 | Request | 205.7 |
| FY2028 | Outyear | 241.1 |
| FY2029 | Outyear | 321.1 |
| FY2030 | Outyear | 377.4 |
| FY2031 | Outyear | 377.7 |

> Estimate types are not summed. This project is one leaf of PE 0604181C; the PE total is the sum of its projects, never added to them.

## What project MD29 buys

Strategic competitors and both homeland and regional adversaries are heavily investing in hypersonics, both offense and defense, and currently have operational hypersonic strike and defensive systems deployed. These are challenging realities of the emerging missile threat environment that United States Missile Defense policy, strategy, and capabilities must address. These adversaries continue to expand the capability and capacity of their offensive and defensive hypersonic missile inventories for both strategic and regional hypersonic missiles. Near Peer/Peer nations have also demonstrated hypersonic missiles in flight tests. The Hypersonic Defense program element includes executing systems engineering activities, upgrading existing systems, investing in new technologies and maturation, and developing new regional and homeland defensive capabilities. Missile Defense Agency's (MDA) counter hypersonic threats strategy includes leveraging existing systems, delivering an initial regional and homeland layered defense capability, and increasing defense capabilities in the future. Activities enabling this strategy are the following: - Develop a land and sea-based Glide Phase Intercept capability to engage hypersonic threats during the glide phase of flight and other threats of multi-mission areas. - Develop requirements to integrate Glide Phase Intercept capability into the Missile Defense System-Next capabilities in support of the President's Executive Order 14186. - Execute systems engineering for Hypersonic Defense, including architecture analysis, technology prioritization, requirements development, planning, and analysis. - Partner with the Services and other agencies to leverage land and sea-based work on common technologies, test infrastructure, weapon development, testing, and war-gaming. - Cooperatively develop the Glide Phase Interceptor with Japan.

**R-3 lines of work:** Product Development; Support; Test and Evaluation.

## Named R-3 performers

| Performer | $M | Share of this project's FY2027 R-3 total |
|---|---|---|
| Lockheed Martin | 88.7 | 43% |
| Northrop Grumman | 25.3 | 12% |
| MODERN | 3.0 | 1.5% |
| Program Executive Office (PEO) Integrate | 2.3 | 1.1% |

> Budget-justification contract funding, not obligations. Shares need not reach 100% — unnamed and government work is in the denominator.

## Activities (R-2A) — 2

| Activity | FY2025 | FY2026 | FY2027 | Move | Page |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hypersonic Missile Defense Capability | 0.0 | 0.0 | 205.7 | new | [a1](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0604181C/MD29/a1) |
| Regional Hypersonic Missile Defense Capability | 168.8 | 167.5 | 0.0 | −100% | — |

> Activities carry the prior, current and budget year only — no five-year plan. In the request year they partition this project exactly; in earlier years they can under-cover it.

### Hypersonic Missile Defense Capability — NEW START

Leverage and Upgrade Existing Systems: - Continue engineering, planning, and foundational upgrades to land and sea-based capability to support acceleration of regional and homeland Aegis Glide Phase Interceptor capability. - Provide BOA and C2BMC algorithm development and prototyping for low latency tracks as foundational efforts to…

Full year-by-year narrative: https://hitchintel.com/programs/0604181C/MD29/a1

### Regional Hypersonic Missile Defense Capability

**FY2026 to FY2027 change.** Decrease from FY 2026 to FY 2027 reflects the transition of funding to the R-2a accomplishment (Hypersonic Missile Defense Capability) to better reflect the regional and homeland defense capability of the Glide Phase Interceptor.

**FY2026 plans — current year.** Aegis Weapon System: - Evolve and mature systems engineering efforts to continue the flow of system level requirements to subsystem requirement specifications and continue preliminary design activities. - Develop updated weapon system code to support demonstration of capability in partner flight tests and flight experiments and leverage results of flight tests enhance Glide Phase Interceptor designs and inform future development. - Continue refinement of engagement and shot selection algorithms to optimize performance across the Glide Phase Interceptor threat and battlespace. Missile System: - Continue to evolve and mature a single missile system design. - Build and test early subsystem design prototype hardware to mature designs toward the preliminary design. - Continue to execute the cooperative development agreement with the Japan Ministry of Defense partner. - Integrate into the Missile Defense System-Next capabilities in support of the President's Executive Order 14186. Engineering Enablers: - Provide limited Missile Defense System-level engineering support, to include alignment of system and subsystem technical requirements, limited Glide Phase Interceptor lethality support, and development of HD/Glide Phase Interceptor-specific M&S updates. - Mature technology to address current and future hypersonic threats.

## What is NOT on this page

Congressional marks, the R-2 mission description and acquisition strategy, the industry vs government split of the whole request, and related program elements are recorded at **program-element** grain — an NDAA mark lands on a PE, never on a project. They are at https://hitchintel.com/programs/0604181C.

## Source & machine access

- **Source:** FY2027 Office of the Secretary of Defense RDT&E Budget Justification, Exhibits R-2/R-2A/R-3, PE 0604181C project MD29 (PB PB2027).
- **MCP:** `mcp.hitchintel.com` — `budget_get_program_element(pe="0604181C")`.

*HitchAI is an independent intelligence service, not affiliated with the U.S. Department of Defense. Budget figures are requests/estimates, not obligations.*