Air & Missile Defense Systems

A new study from the Center for Strategic and International Studies suggests that using a network of ground-based sensors could make U.S. and allied air and missile defenses much more effective. Defense officials call it the most detailed public report on passive mesh sensing so far, and they think it’s coming at the right time – since enemy missiles are getting faster, smarter, and more numerous every year.

NATO’s supreme allied commander, U.S. Air Force Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, has orders to push Patriot air- and missile-defense batteries to Ukraine at a pace faster than any previous transfer in the two-year campaign to reinforce Kyiv’s skies. He told Army officers and industry executives gathered here that planners are already matching available launchers with transport assets so hardware can leave European depots “as soon as coordination ends.”

LandEuro 2025 opened on 16 July at the Rhein-Main Congress Centre in Wiesbaden, drawing delegations from twenty-seven nations and a broad cross-section of the European defense industry. Germany’s Rheinmetall used the forum to introduce a production-standard Skyranger 30 turret mounted on an 8×8 Boxer chassis. According to industry sources, senior procurement officers from at least seven NATO members attended the live firing showcase at a nearby Bundeswehr range on the eve of the exhibition.

Germany has taken the first formal step toward buying the US-built Typhon mid-range missile system. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius lodged the request during two days of talks with US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth in Washington on 14 July, officials in both capitals confirmed. The move ends months of speculation about how Berlin intends to plug the range gap between its existing Patriot batteries and the future European hypersonic weapon now in concept studies.

The Paris Air Show gave America’s biggest defense suppliers a global stage to describe how they would fold familiar missiles, radars and command-and-control networks into President Donald Trump’s Golden Dome homeland-defense plan. They argued that starting with hardware already in service will cut cost and time, but even their upbeat briefings could not hide a basic truth: no one yet knows exactly who will run integration, how the money will flow, or whether a space-based interceptor layer can be fielded by 2028.

The Army has given the green light to start low-rate production of its Indirect Fire Protection Capability Increment 2 system this October. Defense officials confirm that the signed acquisition decision memorandum cleared the final gate after a quick turn-around review on 28 June. According to industry sources, Dynetics, a Leidos company, received the first production task order hours later. The order covers eight launchers, two battle management kits, and initial spares worth about $385 million.