Lockheed Martin has delivered the first safety-test articles supporting qualification of its QuadStar interceptor for the U.S. Army’s Next-Generation Short-Range Interceptor (NGSRI) program, the company said on November 2, 2026. The deliveries coincided with an automation demonstration at its Camden, Arkansas, munitions facility in recent weeks, as Lockheed Martin positions its production model ahead of an Army procurement start planned for Fiscal Year 2028.
NGSRI is the Army’s planned replacement for the FIM-92 Stinger and a component of the broader Maneuver Short-Range Air Defense (M-SHORAD) effort. The Army awarded competing development contracts to Lockheed Martin and Raytheon in 2023. According to an Army request for information reported in June 2026, the service uses planning figures of 11,000 NGSRI missiles and 2,200 man-portable Control Launch Assemblies (CLAs) over a ten-year production run starting in FY2028. Raytheon’s difficulty raising Stinger output after large transfers to Ukraine from 2022 turned manufacturability into a selection factor alongside seeker performance and lethality.
Lockheed Martin NGSRI Automation Cell and Digital Twin at Camden
At Camden, Lockheed Martin has stood up a dedicated automation cell that runs in parallel with the agile final assembly line building tactical-configuration rounds. The cell captures data from each build and feeds it back to engineers, who refine the assembly sequence continuously. The company describes the result as a data-rich digital twin of the QuadStar production process, designed to resolve producibility issues on the line rather than after low-rate production begins.
Lockheed Martin states that this approach has compressed first-unit flow to nearly half the traditional duration, and that production data has already exposed bottlenecks, reduced rework and lowered manpower requirements. The company has not released figures for unit cost, labor hours or target production rates, so these gains cannot yet be independently assessed.
The production model draws on Camden’s experience with the PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) interceptor and the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS), both under sustained demand. Lockheed Martin says NGSRI tooling, fixtures and supply chain pathways are deliberately isolated from those lines, so an NGSRI ramp would not draw capacity from PAC-3 MSE or GMLRS. The company is also building a dual-source supply chain, investing in new vendors for multiple interceptor components, and uses the automation cell to model rate increases before they reach the floor.
Camden marks the program’s second manufacturing milestone this year. In April 2026, Lockheed Martin reported that the NGSRI team had run a full-scale final assembly demonstration for the Army at its Advanced Manufacturing Technology Center in Grand Prairie, Texas, where additive manufacturing is used to cut build time.
QuadStar Design, Stinger Compatibility, and Flight Test Record
QuadStar derives from Lockheed Martin’s Miniature Hit-to-Kill (MHTK) interceptor work of the 2010s. Publicly available details indicate the missile retains a 70 mm (2.75-inch) rocket motor matching Stinger’s diameter, then tapers to a pointed forebody that reduces drag to extend range and speed. Its infrared seeker views through windows in the nose rather than a blunt dome, a configuration the company says lowers complexity and cost. Unlike MHTK, QuadStar carries a compact explosive warhead. According to Lockheed Martin, the missile uses an open architecture and the Army will own the core architecture of the winning design.
Lockheed Martin pairs the missile with a new CLA design integrating improved optics and AI-enabled automated target recognition, tracking and identification for the dismounted gunner. Army requirements specify a fire-and-forget missile able to defeat rotary-wing, fixed-wing, and Group 2 and Group 3 unmanned aircraft, backward compatible with the Stryker-based SGT STOUT and the Marine Corps’ Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS).
QuadStar completed its first flight test at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, on January 13, 2026, 26 months after contract award, followed by a Seeker Characterization Flight Test in May 2026. Raytheon announced in July 2026 that it had completed a system technology demonstration of its own NGSRI design at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah. Neither company has published range or speed figures.
Analysis: Lockheed Martin is framing NGSRI as an industrial-base competition as much as a missile competition, and that emphasis tracks Army priorities. The service’s August 2026 notice for an NGSRI Alternate Interceptor Demonstration signals a push for more competition and less dependence on any single prime. A line walled off from PAC-3 MSE and GMLRS, backed by dual-sourced components, directly answers the concern that a Stinger successor could inherit Stinger’s surge-production problems. The gains remain company-reported, however, and the decisive variables, unit price and sustainable monthly rate, are undisclosed.
The next markers are completion of qualification testing on the safety-test articles and the Alternate Interceptor Demonstration planned for spring 2027, which could bring new entrants into the field. Procurement is slated to begin in FY2028, which opens on October 1, 2027. Whether the Army selects one supplier, splits production, or widens the competition will determine whether Camden’s automation investment converts into a production contract.