New NGSRI missile for U.S. Army offers high interception capability against short range aerial and hypersonic threats.

The development of the U.S. Army’s Next Generation Short-Range Interceptor (NGSRI) marks a significant technological shift in mobile short-range air defense, offering performance and capabilities far surpassing those of the legacy FIM-92 Stinger MANPADS portable air defense missile system. As part of the Maneuver Short-Range Air Defense (M-SHORAD) Increment 3 modernization initiative, the NGSRI is being designed to counter a broad range of advanced aerial threats, including rotary-wing aircraft, drones, cruise missiles, and short-range hypersonic munitions. With integrated enhancements in speed, range, seeker performance, and propulsion, the NGSRI is poised to become a core component of the future U.S. Army's layered air defense strategy.
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U.S. Raytheon’s new Next-Generation Short-Range Interceptor NGSRI completes a successful ballistic missile flight demonstration in June 2025. (Picture source: Raytheon)

The FIM-92 Stinger is a man-portable, infrared-guided surface-to-air missile that has served as the backbone of the U.S. Army's short-range air defense since its introduction in 1981. Developed by General Dynamics and later manufactured by Raytheon, the Stinger quickly became an iconic battlefield system, widely deployed by U.S. forces and over 30 allied nations. It has been used extensively in multiple conflicts, from the Cold War era through the Global War on Terror, to counter low-flying helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. Though lightweight and highly portable, the Stinger is constrained by limited range, speed, and vulnerability to modern countermeasures, making it less suitable for today’s threat environment. The NGSRI program was initiated to provide a replacement missile capable of defeating more advanced and agile threats in increasingly complex operational domains.

Developed by Raytheon as a future replacement for the Stinger MANPADS (Man-Portable Air-Defense Systems), the Next Generation Short-Range Interceptor is a new class of surface-to-air missile designed to deliver high-speed, extended-range precision engagements against modern air threats. Measuring under 1.5 meters in length, the NGSRI accelerates beyond Mach 3 within seconds of launch, providing an immediate and powerful engagement envelope for rapidly emerging threats. Its propulsion system, based on Highly Loaded Grain (HLG) solid propellant technology, delivers a sustained and more intense energy output than conventional motors. This advanced rocket motor allows the missile to achieve intercept ranges of up to 9 kilometers, well above the Stinger’s maximum range of just under 4.8 kilometers. The missile’s precision flight and terminal accuracy are sustained across this range, making it a critical asset for mobile formations requiring fast-reaction air defense.

On June 5, 2025, Raytheon, a business unit of RTX, and Northrop Grumman announced the successful completion of four flight-ready tests of the HLG-powered rocket motor for the NGSRI, conducted as part of the U.S. Army’s system maturation program. These tests validated the motor’s ability to produce longer-duration thrust and greater kinetic energy, thereby enhancing the interceptor’s reach and reliability under high-G maneuvering and short time-to-target conditions. The adoption of HLG propellant technology represents a key innovation in the missile’s ability to counter increasingly complex threats, including cruise missiles and emerging hypersonic systems operating at low altitudes.

Earlier this year, on February 18, 2025, Raytheon confirmed that it had successfully completed ten critical subsystem demonstrations for the NGSRI program. These demonstrations included evaluations of the missile’s seeker, warhead, rocket motor, and command launch assembly (CLA), all of which are essential to meet the U.S. Army’s performance and range specifications. The advanced seeker, featuring multi-mode sensing capabilities, exceeded the detection and acquisition range of the legacy Stinger seeker during both laboratory and outdoor testing. It is designed to maintain target lock in contested electromagnetic environments, offering resilience against jamming and decoys.

The flight-ready rocket motor validated in those tests confirmed its ability to deliver consistent thrust across extended flight paths, while the CLA demonstrated superior detection and target identification capability in operationally realistic, low-visibility environments. Arena tests of the warhead showed precise and repeatable lethality across a range of aerial targets, including small UAVs and maneuvering aircraft, marking a significant increase in terminal effectiveness over previous-generation systems.

Raytheon officials described these subsystem tests as a decisive step in advancing the missile toward operational maturity. Tom Laliberty, president of Land & Air Defense Systems at Raytheon, stated, “These successful subsystem demonstrations are a crucial step in meeting the U.S. Army’s range and performance requirements for this transformational short-range air defense capability. We are confident in our ability to rapidly deliver the Army an affordable, low-risk, highly producible NGSRI solution.”

The missile’s physical compatibility with existing U.S. Army systems offers a major advantage in deployment flexibility. The NGSRI is designed to integrate seamlessly into the Stinger Vehicle Universal Launcher and man-portable fire units, allowing it to be fielded rapidly without reconfiguring launch platforms or fire control systems. This backward compatibility, combined with improved performance, makes the NGSRI a force multiplier within the Army’s current and future mobile air defense formations.

Additionally, the upgraded M-SHORAD configuration will remove the need for Hellfire missile integration, allowing the vehicle to double its short-range missile loadout from four to eight interceptors. This change simplifies logistics, reduces crew workload, and dramatically increases the volume of fire available to counter massed aerial attacks, such as drone swarms or coordinated missile salvos.

The NGSRI’s digital architecture supports software-defined functionality, enabling continuous upgrades and threat-specific mission tailoring. This makes the interceptor not only relevant for today’s threat environment, but also adaptable to tomorrow’s rapidly evolving battlefield challenges. With down-selection between competing designs from Raytheon and Lockheed Martin expected in the near term, the U.S. Army is targeting a decision on low-rate initial production by FY2027, with fielding planned shortly thereafter.

In sum, the NGSRI delivers a generational leap in air defense capability, surpassing the FIM-92 Stinger in every measurable category, from seeker fidelity and range to speed and integration flexibility. It provides the U.S. Army with a highly responsive, mobile, and scalable solution to counter the full spectrum of low-altitude aerial threats in peer and near-peer conflict scenarios. Army Recognition will continue to follow the NGSRI’s progress as it transitions from prototype testing to frontline deployment, ensuring readers are informed on one of the most significant air defense developments of the decade.