Raytheon, a business unit of RTX (NYSE: RTX), has successfully completed a critical technology demonstration of its Next Generation Short Range Interceptor at Dugway Proving Grounds, Utah.
The demonstration proved the range, accuracy, and lethality of the new surface-to-air missile system, which is designed to replace Raytheon’s legacy Stinger missile for the U.S. Army.
During the demo, multiple guided missiles were launched using the company’s soldier-portable Command Launch Assembly, with each shot destroying Army-simulated aerial targets.
Every intercept confirmed the NGSRI system’s ability to detect, track, and engage threats with direct hits, validating the program’s core performance objectives.
The system’s advanced capabilities are driven by precision optics in the Command Launch Assembly and missile seeker, paired with a highly loaded grain solid rocket motor manufactured by Northrop Grumman.
Those combined technologies significantly extend NGSRI’s engagement range well beyond what current systems are capable of delivering on the battlefield.
“Raytheon’s NGSRI saw farther and locked faster, demonstrating superior target acquisition, longer range and greater lethality than Stinger – which is already the world’s most in-demand and shoulder-fired air defense system,” said Tom Laliberty, president of Land and Air Defense Systems at Raytheon.
Laliberty added, “Our NGSRI solution builds on Stinger’s historic global success by being easier to build and field, resulting in a more capable, affordable and rapidly producible weapon.”
Over the past year, Raytheon conducted several company-funded tests to prove and enhance NGSRI, alongside two incremental demonstrations completed under contract with the Army.
The NGSRI program calls for a short-range missile capable of being fired from either a vehicle-mounted or shoulder-mounted launcher configuration.
As the existing manufacturer of the Stinger missile and launchers, Raytheon is working to ensure full interoperability between NGSRI and both new and legacy mounted platforms.
Raytheon’s NGSRI design draws on more than 60 years of air defense experience, with modular system design and automated manufacturing enabling faster development and production timelines.
The weapon is intended to serve both the U.S. Army and Marine Corps as the most advanced shoulder-launched air defense missile in the world.
RTX, headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, reported more than $88 billion in sales in 2025 and employs more than 180,000 people globally across its defense and aerospace businesses.
