Lockheed Martin Accelerating Development of Affordable, Scalable Hypersonic Glide Body
HUNTSVILLE, Ala., June 24, 2026. Lockheed Martin has announced a new hypersonic glide body that represents the future of defense through deterrence. Designed to provide warfighters with an affordable, rapidly producible and operationally relevant long-range strike option, the next generation glide body (NXGB) combines advanced performance, survivability and scalability to meet evolving national security needs.
NXGB boasts advanced hypersonic performance with a manufacturing-first approach that reduces costs while delivering greater range and velocity than current designs.
Built to support the nation’s growing need for scaled production to enable long-range strike options, NXGB can be launched from multiple platforms across multiple warfighting domains, providing warfighters with increased operational flexibility across contested environments while reducing risk to U.S. forces.
“NXGB demonstrates our commitment to delivering next-generation deterrence that is not only effective, but affordable and producible at scale,” said Johnathon Caldwell, Lockheed Martin Vice President and General Manager of Strategic and Missile Defense Systems. “We designed this capability from the outset to provide greater value to our customers while delivering an operational advantage to the warfighter.”
A Foundation Built on Fielded Success
The weapon leverages more than six decades of missile development expertise, incorporating proven technologies, engineering practices and lessons learned from successful fielded systems.
“The future of deterrence belongs to solutions that combine innovative Modular Open Systems Approach and modern design methods with proven performance,” Caldwell said. “NXGB reflects a paradigm shift focusing on design for manufacturing at scale while implementing decades of lessons learned designing, producing and delivering mission-critical systems for the warfighter. That heritage allows us to move faster as well as reduce risk and cost while keeping exceptional performance.”
To support production, Lockheed Martin has made significant investments in purpose-built manufacturing infrastructure and advanced production capabilities. These investments and supply chain partnerships position the company to rapidly scale production and deliver critical capability to the warfighter when and where it is needed.
Next Steps
The program successfully completed Preliminary Design Review, an achievement that confirms the design meets stringent criteria for performance, producibility and affordability. NXGB is slated for a 2027 flight demonstration to validate performance.
