Lockheed Martin unveiled the PAC-3 Edge on Oct. 9, 2026, its offering for the U.S. Army’s Future Interceptor program, a next-generation version of the Patriot’s PAC-3 missile segment enhancement (MSE). The company says the new interceptor can fly further, reach higher altitudes, and engage more capable targets than the current PAC-3 missile.
Tim Cahill, president of Lockheed’s missiles and fire control unit, said Lockheed was one of two companies selected to advance in the program. He did not identify the other company, and the Army did not respond to a request for more information.
Lockheed plans to invest hundreds of millions of dollars of its own money in the missile, with additional investments in its seeker and solid rocket motor. Cahill said the company has already put “somewhere between $50 [million] and $100 million or better” into the program. Lockheed is developing the seeker in-house and plans to invest about $800 million into it, having already invested “several $100 million dollars” so far. For the solid rocket motor, Lockheed is working with Northrop Grumman on a three-pulse motor intended to provide greater range and altitude compared with the legacy PAC-3 missile.
Lockheed intends to begin testing PAC-3 Edge in 2027, ahead of its first deployment in 2031, the company said in a news release. The missile will be produced on Lockheed’s existing PAC-3 line in Camden, Arkansas, which is currently being expanded under a Pentagon agreement to triple interceptor production over the next seven years. Lockheed is building a new MSE production facility with robotics, automation, and AI, and the legacy facility will receive the same upgrades, Cahill said.
“PAC-3 Edge is designed to go after the most stressing targets that we — and, more importantly, that the Department of War — believes are the next-generation [threats] that they’re going to be seeing in the fight from our adversaries,” Cahill said in an interview with Breaking Defense ahead of the Association for the U.S. Army conference, where a full-scale model will be displayed on Monday.
The Army’s efforts to develop a next-generation interceptor have seen fits and starts. In 2024, the service announced plans to cancel the Lower-Tier Future Interceptor (LTFI) program, which had both Raytheon and Lockheed competing. But in October 2025, Maj. Gen. Frank Lozano, then the program executive officer for missiles and space, said the program could move forward: “I think right now the glass is probably half full that we’ll get to run that program.”
Lockheed has also developed the PAC-3 ACE, a less capable, lower-cost version of the MSE for international customers, announced earlier this year. The Pentagon recently awarded Lockheed undefinitized contract actions to ramp up PAC-3 and THAAD production, which Cahill said provide the contractual authority needed to move forward without waiting for final contract definitization.
Sources: DVIDS News · DVIDS News