Overview
- Boeing publicly revealed its Ultra Low-Cost Seeker, an active radar seeker built largely from commercial off-the-shelf parts that the company says survived early lab, airborne and rocket-launch demonstrations.
- The seeker is designed to be modular so one sensor can be reused across interceptors, guided bombs and cruise missiles, which Boeing says would lower engineering and lifecycle costs for multiple weapon types.
- Northrop Grumman introduced the Raid Hunter, a short-range air-defense concept that fires a networked, maneuverable 50 mm cannon round that uses a proximity fuse to detonate near incoming threats.
- Northrop has not yet fired the round at live targets and expects an operational prototype and live tests in summer 2027, while Boeing plans multiple 2027 flight tests to better replicate operational scenarios.
- Both companies say the work responds to Pentagon pressure to deliver cheaper, higher-volume weapons as seeker production has long been a chokepoint for missile output and program funding and firm per-unit prices remain undisclosed.