Maverick Against Hypersonic Systems

This isn’t about the actor Tom Cruise, though speed matters here too.

Project Maverick is an initiative of the US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) to flight-test a demonstrator technology for tracking and intercepting hypersonic glide vehicles (HGVs).

The test is scheduled for 2027.

It’s a fitting name for a project that, like the world of Top Gun, will be defined by speed, agility, and robustness.

The demonstrator technology, intended to intercept hypersonic threats, will itself need speed and agility so that adversary HGVs cannot dodge U.S. missile defense systems and strike their targets.

Notably, the United States pursued a related ambition some years ago with its Conventional Prompt Global Strike (CPGS) program, which envisioned a Hypersonic Technology Vehicle (HTV) capable of reaching any point on the globe in under sixty minutes.

In Top Gun: Maverick, Cruise’s character tests the experimental Darkstar jet, pushing it to hypersonic speed despite its many complexities. The name of this missile defense project is a fitting metaphor for the burden placed on missile defense interceptors as they push beyond current technical limits.

HGVs are difficult to intercept, and they represent a growing security concern. Real technological challenges stand in the way of neutralizing them, but the United States must keep working to overcome them.

A successful technology demonstrator capable of intercepting HGVs would offer real reassurance to the United States, particularly because HGVs can be nuclear-capable, as demonstrated by Russia and China. HGVs are typically mounted atop medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles, allowing them to evade enemy missile defenses and travel at higher speeds.

This will not be an easy task.

Testing technology this complex requires network-centric coordination, advanced sensor networks and off-board targeting data, likely supported by a tactical battle management system, will all play a role in the flight test. This kind of coordinated approach is what makes it possible to intercept highly maneuverable systems like HGVs.

If successful, the interceptor is expected to serve as an interim counter-hypersonic weapon until the Glide Phase Interceptor, the primary system against hypersonic threats, is delivered in the 2030s.

Success will hinge on the system’s ability to link sensors and networks in a way that shortens the kill chain, drawing on both air- and space-based platforms. A fast, well-connected kill chain will be essential to intercepting high-speed threats like HGVs, since using targeting data from external sensors cuts the time needed to detect a threat and guide a weapon to it.

A strong sensor-to-shooter kill chain would sharpen this denial capability at extraordinary speeds. A weak one, by contrast, would slow the interceptor’s ability to neutralize HGVs in a network-centric battlespace where speed is the deciding factor in both combat and deterrence.

A tighter sensor-to-shooter loop makes for a shorter, faster interception process, one that lets the interceptor complete its Observe-Orient-Decide-Act (OODA) loop faster than the HGV it’s chasing. In this offense-defense contest, whichever side completes its OODA loop first wins.

That means the interceptor is racing against an HGV that already benefits from a compressed OODA loop, thanks to its own high speed. The challenge grows sharper during the HGV’s Orient phase, its midcourse maneuver.

Interceptors may also need to catch the HGV at the point of closest approach. If they miss that window, they must attempt an intercept during the HGV’s egress instead.

HGV interceptors will be a crucial piece of the U.S. air and missile defense architecture, reinforcing the layered defense structure that protects the U.S. homeland.

This work also supports the larger ambitions of President Donald Trump’s Golden Dome initiative.

The 2027 test, then, will stand as a key benchmark for U.S. progress in glide-phase interceptor technology.