U.S. Army Stinger Replacement Advances as Raytheon NGSRI Destroys Every Test Target.

Raytheon has successfully fired multiple guided Next Generation Short Range Interceptor missiles from a soldier-portable launcher, with the company reporting on July 15, 2026, that every round detected, tracked, and directly hit an Army-simulated aerial target. The test demonstrated a complete engagement chain from operator acquisition to target destruction, a critical step toward replacing the FIM-92 Stinger with a more capable short-range air defense weapon.

The interceptor is being developed for shoulder-fired and vehicle-mounted use under the U.S. Army’s Maneuver Short Range Air Defense Increment 3 program. Its successful entry into developmental testing strengthens Raytheon’s position against Lockheed Martin’s QuadStar ahead of the Army’s planned single-vendor selection and Milestone C decision in fiscal year 2028.

Related topic: U.S. Army MV-75 Cheyenne Rotorcraft Gains RTX Systems for Longer-Range Assault Missions.

Raytheon’s Next Generation Short Range Interceptor completes a multi-shot guided test at Dugway Proving Ground, advancing the U.S. Army’s effort to replace the FIM-92 Stinger with a longer-range weapon designed to counter drones, aircraft and cruise missiles (Picture source: RTX).

The result is narrower than Raytheon’s description of a proven operational missile, but more consequential than the company’s earlier component demonstrations. In February 2025, Raytheon reported ten separate tests covering the seeker, flight motor, Command Launch Assembly, warhead, tracker, guidance section, aerodynamic controls, fuze and safety functions. A company-funded ballistic firing was announced on February 2, 2026, and then showed that the interceptor could track a drone target and leave a man-portable launcher. The Dugway event joined those functions in guided engagements and repeated the sequence across several missiles. Raytheon has not disclosed the number or type of targets, launch distances, target speeds, crossing angles, altitudes, countermeasures, weather conditions, or statistical confidence of the results. The test therefore reduces integration risk, but it does not yet establish performance against the full operational threat set.

The weapon consists of a new optical Command Launch Assembly, a guided missile with its own precision optical seeker, onboard tracking and guidance electronics, aerodynamic control surfaces, a fuze, and a conventional warhead. Raytheon has not identified the seeker’s spectral bands, detector resolution, field of view or counter-countermeasure techniques, so claims that it uses a particular infrared, ultraviolet or multispectral arrangement cannot yet be verified. What has been disclosed is that the launcher optics demonstrated longer-range detection and identification in low visibility, while the seeker acquired targets at distances exceeding those achieved by Stinger during laboratory and outdoor trials. This division of work matters tactically: the launcher must first allow the gunner to find, identify, and designate a small object, after which the missile seeker must acquire and hold it through launch acceleration, background clutter, and terminal maneuver.

Propulsion is provided by a Highly Loaded Grain solid rocket motor manufactured by Northrop Grumman at the Allegany Ballistics Laboratory in West Virginia. Raytheon and Northrop Grumman moved the motor from initial concept to first flight in less than six months and conducted three static firings under different environmental conditions before a ballistic flight demonstration in 2025. The manufacturers describe the grain arrangement as providing longer burn time and greater energy output than a conventional solid motor of comparable size. Operationally, the relevant measure is not simply the maximum distance. A longer powered-flight phase gives the interceptor more energy to correct its course against crossing, accelerating, or receding targets and reduces the portion of the engagement completed in an unpowered coast. Raytheon has not released maximum speed, effective range, ceiling, time to target, or maneuver limits, preventing a numerical comparison with either Stinger or QuadStar.

Stinger remains the baseline against which NGSRI is being evaluated. The FIM-92 entered Army service in 1981, uses passive homing, and reaches speeds of up to Mach 2, but the Army acknowledges that its effective distance has changed little and that conventional solid-motor propulsion is a principal constraint. Stinger was designed primarily around helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft with identifiable heat signatures. Current short-range air defenders must also engage electrically powered reconnaissance drones, loitering munitions, one-way attack aircraft, and cruise missiles that may be smaller, colder, slower, or closer to terrain. Greater seeker sensitivity is therefore required to detect a low-signature target, while additional motor energy is needed to engage it before it reaches surveillance, targeting, or weapon-release distance. Direct hits at Dugway indicate guidance accuracy, but they do not by themselves disclose the warhead’s lethal radius or fuze performance during near-miss engagements; those characteristics remain subject to government live-fire evaluation.

The Army intends to use the selected NGSRI in two distinct tactical arrangements. Dismounted teams will employ the missile through the new Command Launch Assembly, preserving a portable air-defense weapon that can accompany infantry, airborne, and expeditionary units without radar vehicles. Mounted missiles will be integrated with the Stryker-based SGT STOUT air-defense vehicle, formerly M-SHORAD Increment 1. Increment 3 also adds the XM1223 30 mm Multi-Mode Proximity Airburst round for the vehicle’s XM914 cannon. The combination creates an engagement hierarchy: the cannon can address drones and other targets within gun range, while NGSRI is reserved for threats requiring greater reach, speed, or terminal energy. Compatibility with existing Stinger Vehicle Universal Launchers could also limit modification costs and allow the Army to retain installed launch equipment. The planned Increment 3 configuration is expected to move toward an eight-missile load after removal of the Longbow Hellfire launcher.

The acquisition schedule shows why the Dugway test matters, but also why fielding is not imminent. The Army’s fiscal year 2027 budget documents identify $816.1 million in research, development, test and evaluation funding for M-SHORAD Increment 3 from fiscal years 2023 through 2028, including a $215.101 million fiscal year 2027 request. Developmental testing runs from the third quarter of fiscal year 2026 through the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2027, followed by an operational assessment from the third quarter of fiscal year 2027 to the second quarter of fiscal year 2028. Planned interceptor procurement begins with $177.102 million in fiscal year 2028, subject to congressional appropriations and the final Raytheon-Lockheed Martin down-select. The competition remains active. For U.S. forces, the eventual gain will be measurable only if testing confirms longer acquisition distance, greater defended area, reliable performance against low-signature targets, and acceptable unit cost at production scale.

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Written by Evan Lerouvillois, Defense Analyst.

Evan studied International Relations, and quickly specialized in defense and security. He is particularly interested in the influence of the defense sector on global geopolitics, and analyzes how technological innovations in defense, arms export contracts, and military strategies influence the international geopolitical scene.