4. Department of Defense · Notable · Needs Congress
Accelerate the Glide Phase Interceptor
Printed page 127 4. Department of Defense
“Accelerate the Glide Phase Interceptor, which is intended to counter hypersonic weapons.”
What has happened
- Partially done
The FY2026 NDAA authorizes program element 0604181C, Hypersonic Defense - the Missile Defense Agency line that carries the Glide Phase Interceptor - at $200,627,000, at the request, with no schedule provision. Congress accelerated the mission area through the reconciliation appropriation, not through the annual authorization.
- Partially done
Section 20003(b)(1) of the reconciliation act (P.L. 119-21) appropriated $2,200,000,000 for acceleration of hypersonic defense systems, available until 2029 - the Glide Phase Interceptor's mission area, funded at ten times the annual authorization for the program element. Section 20004(34) adds $42,000,000 for second sources for large-diameter solid rocket motors for hypersonic missiles, and sec. 20003(a)(4) $400,000,000 to expand the Multi-Service Advanced Capability Hypersonic Test Bed program.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
“Glide Phase Interceptor” returns zero hits in the enacted text of P.L. 119-60, P.L. 119-21 and P.L. 119-75, and zero in the Federal Register in the window; the program sits inside the Hypersonic Defense program element and inside the reconciliation act’s “hypersonic defense systems”, which are the terms that find it.
- The ask needs an act of Congress; it is partial on the ladder for such asks. mda.mil’s program pages return an error page, so the GPI schedule cannot be read from the agency.
- Action
- expand
- Object
- Glide Phase Interceptor
- ID
- 269