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IFPC Second Interceptor: Army Reopens Cruise Missile Defense Race

The Army is inviting companies it cut from its IFPC Increment 2 second-interceptor contest back for a 2027 shoot-off as Guam air defenses take shape.

ByPeter
Tan military truck with a boxy multi-tube missile launcher on an island airfield as an interceptor climbs at dusk
AI-generated illustration

The U.S. Army has two industry teams building a new air-defense missile, and it has decided that two is not enough. Speaking at the Association of the U.S. Army conference in Washington on 13 October, Lt. Gen. Frank Lozano, the Army’s portfolio acquisition executive for fires, said companies cut from the competition for a second interceptor for the Indirect Fire Protection Capability Increment 2 (IFPC Inc 2) system can return for a shoot-off in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2027, which ends 30 September 2027. “We wanted to turn up the heat on that program,” he said, according to Breaking Defense.

Tan military truck with a boxy multi-tube missile launcher on an island airfield as an interceptor climbs at dusk
AI-generated illustration

What IFPC Increment 2 is

IFPC is the Army’s mid-tier shield for bases. The Congressional Research Service (CRS) describes it as a mobile, ground-based system meant to defeat cruise missiles, drones, and rockets, artillery and mortars, protecting fixed or semi-fixed sites and filling the gap between short-range air defense and the larger Patriot and THAAD systems. The program grew out of Congress’s earlier push for Israel’s Iron Dome; CRS reports that integration problems with the first two Iron Dome batteries led lawmakers to waive the last two in the FY2021 defense bill, and that decision reportedly led to Increment 2.

In September 2021 the Army gave Dynetics, a Leidos subsidiary, a three-year prototype agreement for 16 launchers and 60 interceptors. The resulting truck-mounted launcher, called Enduring Shield, holds 18 missiles and today fires RTX’s ground-launched AIM-9X Sidewinder, Breaking Defense reported. CRS adds that the open design can also employ the AGM-114L Longbow Hellfire and that the Army has tested Israel’s Tamir interceptor.

Key specs and milestones

  • Mission: defend fixed and semi-fixed sites against cruise missiles, drones and rockets, artillery and mortars (CRS).
  • Launcher: Dynetics Enduring Shield, 18 interceptors per launcher (Breaking Defense).
  • Current interceptor: RTX AIM-9X Sidewinder, ground-launched.
  • Planned force: nine battalions, from the 1st Battalion, 51st Air Defense Artillery at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, in FY2026 to Fort Hood, Texas, in FY2033 (CRS, citing the Army).
  • Guam: first shipments planned for the first quarter of FY2027 (October to December 2026) and all 20 launchers on the island by the third quarter of FY2027 (CRS, citing February 2026 Army discussions).
  • Second interceptor: development expected to run through 2029 to 2030 before low-rate initial production, if pursued (CRS).

Why the Army wants a second missile

The Sidewinder was built as a short-range air-to-air missile. According to Defense Daily, the Army has long said it wants a second option able to defeat supersonic cruise missiles and larger rockets. Lozano has described the goal as “an AIM 120D-like capability in an AIM-9X package, because the key is magazine depth,” meaning the range of the longer-reach AMRAAM in a missile small enough to keep 18 rounds in each launcher.

The Army gave Lockheed Martin a prototype agreement in October 2025, added a Boeing-Anduril team that December and a U.S. subsidiary of Israel’s Rafael in February 2026. In September the Army moved Lockheed and Boeing-Anduril to the demonstration phase and dropped Rafael. Boeing says its design pairs Boeing seeker technology with a solid rocket motor from Anduril Rocket Motor Systems and a modular open architecture that lets the seeker, avionics or software be swapped without redesigning the whole weapon. Lockheed referred questions to the Army.

The new shoot-off

Lozano said he is frustrated when programs stretch across a five-year budget plan: “I’m like, ’No, I actually need that capability now.’” The Army has held an industry day and requested information, and he said outside firms will get “range time” and targets, with “an opportunity to get back into the program fold.” Brig. Gen. Guy Yelverton, who runs defensive fires programs, told Breaking Defense the Army could pick two vendors, one from each path. “I need many vendors so I can produce many things simultaneously,” he said. The Army is running the same approach for its Stinger replacement, the Next Generation Short Range Interceptor.

At least one entrant has gone public: the startup Furientis has said it was selected for the parallel shoot-off. The Army has not named the participants, so that claim rests on the company’s own announcement.

Money is the open question. Army acquisition chief Brent Ingraham said at the same conference that munitions plans depend on where the 2027 budget lands, and that a full-year continuing resolution could force the Army to “reprioritize” funds. “I can’t expect industry to sort of invest like we’ve been asking them to invest on a wish list or a dream,” he said.

Why it matters

Analysis, based on the sources cited in this article:

The timing ties the contest to the Pacific. On 16 October the Army activated the 3rd Battalion, 43rd Air Defense Artillery Regiment on Guam, which USNI News reports will operate Patriot, THAAD and IFPC as the Army’s part of the Guam Defense System. The Army describes the change from a rotational task force as a step “toward permanent air defense capabilities in the Indo-Pacific.” If the CRS schedule holds, IFPC launchers will arrive there in the coming months with the Sidewinder as their only fielded missile, so the speed of the second-interceptor effort bears directly on how well Guam can handle fast, low-flying cruise missiles.

The reopened race also reflects a wider push for cheaper interceptors made in bulk, the same pressure seen in the Patriot PAC-3 production deal and the Pentagon’s directed-energy counter-drone pilot. Officials have not published a target price for the second interceptor, and no company has shown performance data in public, so claims about cost and capability remain the vendors’ own until the Army tests them.

What to watch: results of the Lockheed and Boeing-Anduril demonstrations, the names of shoot-off entrants, the first IFPC deliveries to Guam, and whether Congress funds the munitions plans in the final 2027 budget. The Army’s separate CAML launcher effort shows the same push for more, cheaper launchers.

Sources

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