U.S. Looks for a New Air-Deployable Radar to Detect and Track Hypersonic Threats.

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency is advancing a highly mobile radar designed to detect and track ballistic, cruise, and hypersonic missiles while supporting dispersed forces in contested environments, according to a pre-solicitation notice posted on September 16, 2026. The Forward-Based Mode Radar Next would add mobility to missile defense by allowing a critical sensor to deploy quickly, operate from austere positions, and relocate before enemy forces can effectively target it.

The planned radar must deploy by C-17 airlift, move on tactical ground vehicles, become operational within hours, and tear down within minutes while providing early warning, persistent tracking, and discrimination of fast, maneuvering threats. Remote operation and a reduced onsite crew would further improve survivability, making rapid displacement a core defensive feature as the U.S. adapts its missile-warning network to hypersonic weapons and increasingly distributed operations.

Related Topic: U.S. Approves $8 Billion LTAMDS Radar Sale to Kuwait to Upgrade Its Patriot Air Defense System

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency is advancing a C-17-deployable mobile radar designed to rapidly track ballistic, cruise and hypersonic missile threats while protecting dispersed forces through quick relocation (Picture Source: U.S. National Guard)

On September 16, 2026, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency posted a pre-solicitation notice outlining plans for a new highly mobile Forward-Based Mode Radar Next prototype. The initiative addresses the growing challenge posed by ballistic, cruise and hypersonic missiles capable of maneuvering at high speed and threatening increasingly distributed U.S. forces. Unlike traditional sensors tied to established positions, the future radar is being designed to move rapidly, operate from austere locations and relocate before becoming an easy target. The requirements, detailed in the MDA pre-solicitation notice and its supporting prototype document approved for public release on August 10, point toward a more deployable and resilient layer of the U.S. integrated missile-defense architecture.

Mobility as a New Layer of Missile Defense

The Forward-Based Mode Radar Next effort remains a prototype program rather than a production procurement, an important distinction in assessing its current maturity. MDA’s Mobile Land-Based Sensors Project Office intends to pursue innovative concepts through the agency’s NOBLE acquisition framework using Other Transaction Authority for prototype projects under 10 U.S.C. § 4022. The central objective is nevertheless operationally ambitious: rapidly develop, demonstrate and evaluate a highly mobile sensor capable of advanced early warning, persistent tracking and discrimination against complex, high-speed and maneuverable targets, explicitly including ballistic, cruise and hypersonic missiles. The acquisition strategy also leaves open a direct path toward operational production, because MDA states that successful completion of the prototype effort may lead to a subsequent non-competitive follow-on production contract or transaction for qualifying participants.

Mobility is not an auxiliary requirement but one of the defining features of the planned system. MDA says existing static or semi-mobile radars can be vulnerable to counterattack and lack the rapid relocation capability required for modern distributed operations. To close that gap, FBM Radar Next must be capable of rapid deployment by C-17 strategic airlift and movement aboard tactical ground vehicles, allowing the sensor to transition between theaters and forward positions without depending on permanent infrastructure. Once delivered, the radar is expected to become operational within specified hours and, critically, be capable of teardown within minutes to maximize survivability. The system must also support remote operations, automated health monitoring and a reduced onsite operator footprint. Taken together, these requirements effectively make mobility part of the radar's protection: the sensor is intended not simply to withstand a contested environment, but to complicate an adversary's ability to locate, target and destroy it.

For U.S. forces, the strategic value could be particularly important beyond major permanent bases. Temporary operating locations, dispersed airfields and forward logistics sites can host American personnel and high-value assets without the same permanent sensor coverage available at established installations. A radar able to deploy with the force, establish coverage rapidly and relocate could extend advanced sensing to these locations as operational needs change. MDA also requires either a single integrated aperture or multiple distributed arrays to improve coverage, sensitivity and survivability, alongside physical, thermal and electromagnetic signature management for contested environments.

A Force Multiplier for Dispersed Indo-Pacific Operations

Although MDA does not specifically assign FBM Radar Next to the Indo-Pacific, its requirements closely match the challenges of distributed U.S. operations across the region. The Air Force has increasingly exercised Agile Combat Employment from dispersed and austere locations, where a C-17-deployable radar able to relocate by tactical vehicle could provide a valuable sensor force multiplier. Forward positioning could improve tracking geometry against difficult targets, while rapid displacement would enhance survivability. Crucially, MDA also requires seamless C2BMC integration, enabling a forward-deployed radar to contribute tracking data to the wider U.S. missile-defense network rather than operate as an isolated sensor.

MDA is also building affordability and replaceability into the requirement. FBM Radar Next must use modular open-system architecture and provide a pathway toward rapid, high-volume production at an affordable unit cost, including the ability to replace radar units in highly active forward environments. At the same time, MDA is filtering out immature concepts: competitors must demonstrate hardware-backed radar designs before entering Cycle 1, while paper-only or software-only concepts will not qualify. Successful designs would advance through concept development, technology and manufacturing readiness, subscale testing and finally full-scale prototype demonstration. Technical merit leads the anticipated evaluation criteria, followed by operational feasibility, including C-17 compatibility and tactical deployment, schedule viability, producibility and affordability.

FBM Radar Next represents more than another high-performance radar. It points toward a U.S. missile-defense architecture built around sensors that are mobile, distributed, networked and replaceable, with the ability to accompany forces into austere locations. For American personnel and high-value assets operating away from major bases, such a capability could extend missile-warning and tracking coverage where permanent sensors are unavailable. In the Indo-Pacific, C-17 deployability, tactical mobility, distributed-array options and C2BMC connectivity could make the system particularly valuable against fast and maneuverable threats. The program must still prove these capabilities through its prototype process, and the current notice is not yet a request for proposals, but its requirements point toward a more resilient U.S. missile-defense sensor network designed to remain effective in highly contested operations.

Explore More Defense News

• Land Defense News
• Naval Defense News
• Defense Aerospace News

Written by Teoman S. Nicanci – Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group

Teoman S. Nicanci holds degrees in Political Science, Comparative and International Politics, and International Relations and Diplomacy from leading Belgian universities, with research focused on Russian strategic behavior, defense technology, and modern warfare. He is a defense analyst at Army Recognition, specializing in the global defense industry, military armament, and emerging defense technologies.