US officials believe adversary nations, such as China, Russia, and North Korea have been or are attempting to develop nuclear weapons and hypersonic missiles capable of attacking the US and its allies. These nations are not above selling these capabilities to rogue nations, such as Iran or Syria, creating concern among defense decision makers. Hypersonic technology continues to mature and the US is increasing efforts to both develop and quickly manufacture hypersonic missiles and counter-hypersonic technologies to defeat possible hypersonic missiles attacks.

Complicating the missile defense market is the COVID-19 pandemic heightening US lawmakers’ concerns regarding the execution of ballistic missile defense (BMD) program initiatives. Delays in the Aegis weapon program, Standard Missile (SM)-3 Block IIA interceptors’ further production and deliveries, and the Aegis Ashore, Poland construction have defense officials concerned about enemies outpacing the US. Additionally, the pandemic has stalled the development of hypersonic weapons for use against incoming missile threats. Congress has been unwilling to fund programs that may lead to emplacing interceptor capabilities in space, but this reticence may be changing with the changing geopolitical and space domains. Directed energy weapons (DEW) are also gaining traction as a missile defense solution. Testing has proven that DEWs can effectively defeat or incapacitate drones; therefore, the next logical endeavor is to amplify this capability to meet the missile threat.

This research considers all the variables mentioned above as it presents an analysis of the US missile defense market on strategic and theater-level operations. It includes ballistic missile, anti-ship, and tactical missile defense systems. The primary data used to determine company market share is US defense contract data. Spending figures cited in this research refer to actual defense dollars allocated during the base year and projected expenditures according to current defense budget proposals. The US fiscal year (FY) 2019 (October 1, 2018 through September 30, 2019) is taken as the base year for this research since it has the most comprehensive and complete latest published data on contracts and budget forecasts. Market share and competitive analysis are based on government contract obligations distributed during 2019.