Enabling Rapid Planning and Fleet Defense Operations

The beginning of Red Sea hostilities in late 2023 marked the most persistent air and missile threat environment faced by U.S. naval forces in recent history. In the intervening years, with Navy ships such as the USS Mason, USS Arleigh Burke, and USS Carney facing sustained missile and drone attacks, APL leveraged decades of experience in the technology and system development associated with naval air and missile defense and delivered rapid, high-impact technical solutions that proved vital to U.S. naval forces during sustained combat operations in the Red Sea.

Effective coordination across fleet platforms, combatant commands, warfare centers, and government-industry teams ensured APL insights informed real-time and future operations during persistent missile and drone attacks in the Red Sea. Two complementary capabilities played critical roles: APL’s Cerberus collaborative planning tool and the Air and Missile Defense Real World Cell. Cerberus, a prototype that aids in refining mission plans to enable more specific reach-back analysis requests and evaluation, was developed with the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and deployed in 2025 aboard a destroyer and an afloat Maritime Operations Center. In parallel, the Real World Cell provided around-the-clock support to deployed Aegis platforms, delivering tailored mission packages, post-event analyses, and technical guidance that directly shaped fleet operations and theater-level decisions.

“As today’s threats advance and adversary tactics evolve, our team’s work allowed operators to rapidly adapt,” said Vishal Giare, head of APL’s Air and Missile Defense Sector. “The Real World Cell and Cerberus fuse decades of engineering into timely options that enable sailors to safely execute their missions.”

These efforts enabled Navy crews to adapt swiftly to shifting threats, optimize force posture, and continuously improve system use under combat conditions. Cerberus earned cyber and Naval Information Warfare Systems Command physical security certifications in the spring of 2025, clearing the way for broader fleet deployment. Meanwhile, the Real World Cell responds to events — one being the June 2025 attack on Israel — with rapid analysis, informing critical defensive configurations and after-action reviews. APL engineers provide the Navy with assessment, analysis, and recommendations for operational ship actions in the region, helping to combat the evolving threats. Together, these initiatives showcase APL’s ability to pair long-term strategic vision with real-time responsiveness — bringing together digital planning, combat system expertise, and deep operational insight to defend U.S. and allied assets in an ever-evolving threat landscape.

As the U.S. and allies face continuing, and potentially escalating, conflict in the Middle East, APL will continue to play a critical role in ensuring timely analysis to drive strategic decision-making and responsive mission planning to protect U.S. and allied forces.

Strengthening Force Readiness

Backed by thorough engineering, research, testing, modeling, and simulation, APL innovations are improving the speed, accuracy, and resilience of the nation’s air and missile defense systems and its strategic deterrent. Key to this work are live tests and simulations to validate system performance under realistic conditions. From intercept tests and layered defense assessments to exercises involving advanced sensors and cross-domain coordination, these trials strengthen the integrated networks that protect U.S. forces, allies, and the homeland against evolving threats.

• APL completed end-to-end analysis and assisted with the integration of the Navy’s newest long-range air-to-air missile — the AIM-174B, an air-launched configuration of the proven Standard Missile-6 — into operational service. A Laboratory team adapted the SM-6 for launch from a fighter jet instead of a ship, which required a redesign of thermal management, structural, and software interfaces to survive the extreme vibratory and aerodynamic loads of air release. The result is an asset the Navy describes as its longest-range and most capable air-to-air missile.

• The Naval Modular Missile (NMM) program made significant progress toward developing a next-generation, multimission interceptor to enhance fleet capacity, adaptability, and long-range lethality through a modular, open-systems architecture that supports rapid fielding by a joint government-industry-Laboratory team. In 2025, the NMM program — led by APL in conjunction with Program Executive Office for Integrated Warfare Systems — significantly advanced this vision by refining top-level requirements and continuing work on an open, government-owned digital reference architecture that promotes rapid technology integration and industry competition.
• MDA and APL successfully demonstrated a new, lower-cost approach to national missile defense testing and evaluation with the November launch of a payload aboard Rocket Lab’s Electron vehicle in the HASTE configuration. The suborbital mission, developed under an MDA-funded effort known as Project Budget Launch of Affordable Suborbital Targets, or BLAST, marks the first time a payload of this type has flown on a commercially operated launch vehicle. The vehicle achieved its planned trajectory and met all objectives involving payload deployment, telemetry, and flight performance, validating that commercially available launch systems can be adapted for government test missions traditionally requiring custom-built boosters. The development cycle for missile defense test vehicles traditionally stretches several years. The BLAST team compressed end-to-end development to 18 months — and delivered the full mission including launch vehicle, payload development, integration, and launch operations.
• In September 2025, the Navy’s Strategic Systems Programs conducted test flights of unarmed Trident II D5 Life Extension missiles, including one carrying the APL-designed and -built Enhanced Inert Head (EIH) reentry body, which successfully flew for the second time. The EIH continues to meet its objective of cost-effective instrumentation and data collection, and its success has led to additional projects, including the Plasma Experiment and Ground Station System experiment, which is scheduled to fly in April 2027.

Advancing Electronic Warfare

APL is developing technologies to provide warfighters with timely, reliable information in contested environments. Some of these tools and techniques enable service members to quickly detect, interpret, and respond to electromagnetic threats — such as jamming or signal interference — that complicate field operations.

In 2025, the Department of War updated its Modular Payload Design Standard, marking a significant evolution in the way electronic warfare, signals intelligence, and communications payloads are conceived, integrated, and sustained across unmanned and dismounted platforms.

Conceived under U.S. Special Operations Command to bring modularity to unmanned aerial systems, the standard — also known as Mod Payload— was developed by a government and industry team led by APL, with significant contributions from the Lab throughout the effort. The standard’s reach has steadily expanded, and it has been implemented by a range of small unmanned vehicles and dozens of payloads across the military.

The Mod Payload standard defines requirements to achieve true plug-and-play interoperability between systems. By outlining a uniform architecture for both payloads and host platforms, the standard drives down development costs, shortens integration timelines, and enhances maintainability in austere environments — all while promoting system reliability and affordability.

“As unmanned and autonomous systems grow ever more sophisticated, maintaining seamless interoperability for our warfighters is paramount,” said APL Assistant Director for Programs Lisa A. Blodgett. “The Mod Payload standard not only streamlines interoperability but also enables rapid fielding of innovative technology to give our forces a decisive advantage in dynamic and contested environments.”

Recently expanded to include unmanned surface vehicles and dismounts, Mod Payload is approved for unlimited public release, which streamlines access for industry and allied partners, fosters broader adoption, and accelerates innovation across the defense community. Shield AI, a defense technology firm and the platform integrator for the V-BAT vertical takeoff and landing unmanned aerial system found on nearly every class of Navy ship and all seven Marine Expeditionary Units, cited Mod Payload as a critical factor in the platform’s success.

Another force enabler boosted by APL innovation is the AN/ALQ-249 Next Generation Jammer Mid-Band (NGJ-MB) system, an electronic warfare system that allows Navy Growlers to conduct airborne electronic attacks by disrupting, denying, and degrading enemy early-warning, air defense, and communications systems with increased jamming capability at longer ranges. Navy officials describe the NGJ-MB as a “quantum leap in capability over legacy systems,” with greatly increased power, target flexibility, and jamming techniques compared to those systems.

When the Navy issued the requirements for a replacement jammer, there was no industry business case for such a high-power, extreme broadband amplifier, meaning no immediate off-the-shelf solution was available. Leveraging nearly a half century of electronic warfare expertise, APL scientists and engineers, through tasking with the Office of Naval Research, partnered with industry to mature a solid-state amplifier and associated phased array antennas capable of meeting the Navy’s challenging requirements.

The high-power amplifier and phased array technology incorporated into NGJ-MB allow Navy Growlers to engage enemy air defenses at increasingly longer standoff ranges, providing increased survivability and mission effectiveness.

Monitoring and Defending the Space Domain

As space grows more congested and contested, national security increasingly depends on the ability to defend the homeland, protect critical space assets, and detect emerging threats in this highest of high grounds. APL is exploring engagement capabilities and advancing technologies that enhance satellite survivability and sensors capable of tracking high-speed objects in orbit. These efforts help ensure U.S. space operations remain resilient, responsive, and informed.

The Lab worked with U.S. Space Force to design and develop an experimental imaging instrument for an upcoming flight opportunity. Named Agamotto, the instrument relies on event-based sensing technology, where each pixel in the camera operates independently to detect changes in the environment. A leap from traditional cameras, where pixels work simultaneously to capture full images, the technology could revolutionize activities such as space situational awareness.

And finally, in 2025 APL launched a digital engineering program tailored to national security space design and development — a move calculated to accelerate how military and intelligence space systems are designed, tested, and fielded. The program leverages digital modeling, simulation, and engineering to shorten development timelines, improve system reliability, and reduce risk while maintaining security and responding to operational demands unique to U.S. missions. By building a robust digital backbone, APL aims to enable rapid design changes, thorough virtual testing, and more efficient integration of complex capabilities.

The heart of the effort lies in creating end‑to‑end, digitally defined system architectures that allow engineers to model entire space systems — from sensors and platform dynamics to signal processing and deployment environments — before manufacturing begins. As part of this broader architecture approach, systems modeling language models can be executed in a digital environment to support rapid-turn analyses for government decision-making. This reduces reliance on incremental prototyping and helps identify flaws or integration issues early, saving time and cost while improving mission assurance. It also accelerates requirements development, interface definition, and other engineering products, enabling design and development at speed and scale through improved communication across the acquisition and operational communities. In national security space, where reliability and responsiveness are critical, these digital tools also facilitate agile adaptation to mission needs.

Anticipating Threats and Strengthening Tactical Integration

Understanding how and where U.S. forces might face emerging threats is essential to maintaining operational advantage. As such, APL leads and participates in exercises that examine strategic vulnerabilities and tactical coordination.

In September, an APL team played a multifaceted role in the annual Gray Flag exercise. Hosted by Naval Test Wing Pacific and Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 9 at Naval Base Ventura County, Point Mugu, the event combines testing and tactics development to evaluate advanced capabilities in a joint and multidomain environment.

The Laboratory contributed expertise across multiple operational areas, including high-altitude balloon experiments for sensing and communications, battle management aids to support faster, more informed decision-making, and rapidly deployable launch platforms to expand tactical flexibility.

APL also analyzed unmanned surface vessel operations, partnered to coordinate and demonstrate remotely controlled hardware across Navy vessels and aircraft, and showcased a rapid prototyping initiative that repurposes commercial- and government-off-the-shelf technologies to meet urgent Navy needs, aimed at increasing speed to fleet.

“By bringing together technical depth, operational context, and rapid execution, APL helped operational teams evaluate emerging capabilities in a complex, joint environment,” said Gregg Goyette, APL’s Joint Capability Development Program Area manager. “This work demonstrates how the Lab helps bridge strategy and execution and ensures that innovation is not only advanced, but also aligned with real-world operational priorities and decision-making.”

And with eyes on emerging threats, APL designed and executed a wargame addressing the advancement of anti-submarine warfare surveillance systems across the Pacific Rim.

The exercise brought together senior military and interagency participants to evaluate integrated undersea surveillance systems against an evolving threat in a changing ocean environment. The analytic framework included wargame design, performance modeling, scenario design, and post-event assessment. Insights from the wargame are directly informing force posture plans and capability development for national defense stakeholders.

The Laboratory has also been collaborating with U.S. Army North to help the military anticipate, prepare for, and respond to multidomain dangers inside the United States. Early engagement included APL’s participation in Army North’s yearlong “Future of Homeland Defense” workshop series — a set of 10 sessions that examined emerging threats through 2040 and brought together experts from across U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) and key stakeholders in homeland defense, such as U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command and Army Futures Command, along with the broader homeland defense community.

More recently, the partnership has placed emphasis on efforts to improve the resiliency of critical infrastructure for military readiness, with Army North providing essential operational insight that shapes APL research. In fact, this collaborative effort spawned the development of ARMMOR, a multidomain threat modeling tool that has been integrated with the Army’s Mission Assurance Risk Management System to enable real-time risk assessments and asset prioritization.

As the Army streamlines several major headquarters, including Army North, as part of a broader Department of War realignment effort, the Laboratory is poised to continue and expand this partnership.

Our close relationship with Army North’s senior leaders now positions APL to play an even more consequential role as Army North, Army South, and Army Forces Command merge into the new U.S. Army Western Hemisphere Command (USAWHC)

—Becky Zimmerman, Senior Strategist, Homeland Defense Mission Area

“Our close relationship with Army North’s senior leaders now positions APL to play an even more consequential role as Army North, Army South, and Army Forces Command merge into the new U.S. Army Western Hemisphere Command (USAWHC),” said Becky Zimmerman, senior strategist for the Homeland Defense Mission Area. “With a much broader operating area, USAWHC will need scalable solutions in critical infrastructure protection, counter-uncrewed aerial systems, and artificial intelligence-enabled strategy — areas where APL is already prepared to contribute.”

Modernizing Fleet Repair Capabilities and Shipboard Operations

APL initiatives to modernize fleet capabilities with cutting-edge manufacturing, robotics, and materials technologies are contributing to a more agile, self-sufficient maritime industrial base — one in which repairs, reconfigurations, and mission-critical production can happen at sea or on short notice. Tailored to shipboard and naval operations, these innovations promise to improve readiness, reduce reliance on extended supply chains, and deliver new levels of flexibility to forces deployed around the globe.

In collaboration with the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering, APL researchers have created a network for accessing, monitoring, and deploying in-house additive manufacturing and biomanufacturing tools. Dubbed the Agile Manufacturing eXchange (AMX), this innovative capability aims to accelerate the adoption and integration of additive and advanced manufacturing for ship production and repair.

Led by researchers Ahmed Al Bayati and Carly Mayhood, the Hopkins collaborators have developed a network that streamlines supply chains; improves communication between vendors, suppliers, and customers; and lowers the barrier for smaller manufacturers to enter the defense industrial base. AMX is laying the foundation for a secure, scalable framework that could eventually allow the Navy to access distributed printers — including those operated by small businesses — and rapidly produce mission-critical parts wherever and whenever they’re needed.

The exchange is off to a promising start, with the team establishing a connection between an APL facility in Laurel, Maryland, and additive manufacturing machines at the Whiting School in Baltimore. The platform is enabling Johns Hopkins University researchers to access and utilize APL machines seamlessly, securely, and remotely.

“We’re refining and developing a suite of capabilities that allow us to make repairs that are smarter, more precise, and significantly faster,” said Mayhood, a maritime engineer and project manager at APL. “Through our research, we’ll continue to reduce the Navy’s reliance on costly disassembly or replacement parts while keeping ships mission-ready with less downtime.”

Meanwhile, APL and the Navy are also addressing the unique challenge of making sure 3D printers can function at sea. Constant motion caused by waves and maneuvering can affect 3D printer performance and the quality of printed parts; to address this issue, the Laboratory developed a novel capability that simulates shipboard motion for additive manufacturing.

Funded by the Naval Sea Systems Command’s Technology Office and developed in partnership with GKN Aerospace, the motion-simulation platform replicates the dynamic environment of a ship at sea, synchronizing motion between the print head and the substrate. The results have been encouraging, with controlled tests producing structurally sound parts under different motion profiles, and the team continues to refine system controls and move closer to producing critical, mission-relevant parts directly aboard ships.