HUNTSVILLE, Alabama, June 24, 2026 — Lockheed Martin has unveiled its Next Generation Glide Body (NXGB), a new hypersonic glide body designed to provide an affordable, rapidly producible, and long-range strike capability for future military operations.
The company said the NXGB is intended to address evolving national security requirements by combining advanced performance, survivability, and production scalability. The system is being developed as part of Lockheed Martin’s broader effort to expand hypersonic strike capabilities while ensuring they can be manufactured efficiently and in larger numbers.
Hypersonic weapons, which travel at speeds exceeding Mach 5, have become a key priority for the U.S. military due to their ability to maneuver at high speeds, making them more difficult to detect and intercept than conventional ballistic missile systems.
Manufacturing-Focused Design
According to Lockheed Martin, the NXGB employs a manufacturing-first approach aimed at reducing production costs while delivering greater range and velocity than existing hypersonic designs. The company stated that the system was designed from the outset with large-scale production in mind, allowing it to meet future operational requirements without the manufacturing challenges often associated with advanced weapon systems.
To support this goal, Lockheed Martin has invested in purpose-built manufacturing facilities, advanced production technologies, and expanded supply chain partnerships. These investments are intended to improve production efficiency and enable the company to rapidly deliver the capability once the program moves into later development stages.
Multi-Domain Launch Capability
The NXGB has been engineered to operate across multiple warfighting domains and can be launched from a variety of platforms. This cross-domain compatibility is expected to provide military commanders with greater operational flexibility in contested environments while reducing risk to deployed forces.
Built on Decades of Missile Development Experience
Lockheed Martin said the NXGB draws on more than 60 years of missile development experience. The system incorporates proven technologies, established engineering practices, and lessons learned from previously fielded missile and strategic defense programs.
The design also utilizes a Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA), allowing future upgrades and integration of new technologies without requiring extensive redesign.
Company Highlights Affordability and Scalability
Johnathon Caldwell, Vice President and General Manager of Strategic and Missile Defense Systems at Lockheed Martin, said the NXGB reflects the company's focus on delivering effective deterrence capabilities that can be produced efficiently and at scale.
“NXGB demonstrates our commitment to delivering next-generation deterrence that is not only effective, but affordable and producible at scale,” Caldwell said. “We designed this capability from the outset to provide greater value to our customers while delivering an operational advantage to the warfighter.”
Caldwell added that the system represents a shift toward designing advanced weapons specifically for large-scale manufacturing while maintaining high performance standards.
“The future of deterrence belongs to solutions that combine innovative Modular Open Systems Approach and modern design methods with proven performance,” he 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.”
Preliminary Design Review Completed
Lockheed Martin announced that the NXGB program has successfully completed its Preliminary Design Review (PDR), a key development milestone that validates the system’s design against established technical requirements.
The company stated that the review confirmed the design meets performance objectives while satisfying affordability and producibility criteria.
Flight Demonstration Planned for 2027
The next major milestone for the program will be a flight demonstration scheduled for 2027. The test is expected to validate the glide body’s performance and operational capability.
The announcement comes as the U.S. military continues to invest heavily in hypersonic technologies to strengthen long-range precision strike capabilities across multiple services. The NXGB is intended to provide a balance of performance, affordability, and production scalability to support future operational requirements.
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