Northrop Grumman has chosen Huntsville for its flagship Missile Defense Futures Lab designed to quickly develop, test and field an integrated missile defense system. The lab joins the developmental center of the Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System at the company’s Cummings Research Park facility.

The message could not have been clearer at last week’s Missile Defense Symposium here in Huntsville: Northrop Grumman is working to evolve current missile defense technology to counter the progressing threat U.S. warfighters are facing from supersonic and hypersonic cruise missiles.

As these threats become more complex, the countermeasure solutions must also become more complex, the company said, therefore the work to pioneer that technology requires a means for doing so.

“Partnering with our customers, Northrop Grumman is leading the way as the defense industry undergoes digital transformation,” said Lisa Brown, vice president, missile defense solutions, Northrop Grumman. “With speed and agility, we can securely meet with teams across the country, start designing a product, share it with the customer and receive feedback in real-time, reducing the length of our product roadmap dramatically.”

With custom-built servers and the ability to process and relay data from missile detecting satellites and ground stations, the MDFL supports missile defense systems engineers with research, modeling and simulation and the development of tracking software to respond to nuclear and other threats.

MDFL will have distributed Futures Lab facilities in Boulder and Colorado Springs, Colo.; Chandler, Ariz.; McLean, Va.; Morrisville, N.C.; and Baltimore, Md.

The company’s approach to hypersonic and ballistic missile defense spans technologies in multiple warfighting domains from sea to space, as well as the electromagnetic and cyber environments.