Capability Program Executive Defensive Fires (CPE Defensive Fires)
CPE Defensive Fires buys air and missile defense: Patriot and its successors, short-range air defense, counter-rocket-artillery-mortar, and counter-UAS effectors. It is the air-defense half of the old PEO Missiles and Space, reconstituted under PAE_Fires in February 2026.
| Type | Capability Program Executive (CPE) |
| Headquarters | Redstone_Arsenal, Huntsville, AL |
| Capability Program Executive | Guy_Yelverton (COL, Guy Yelverton III) |
| Subordinate to | PAE_Fires, led by Frank_Lozano (LTG); ASAALT for acquisition authority |
| Established | Activated 17 February 2026 at Redstone_Arsenal |
| Predecessor | PEO_Missiles_and_Space air and missile defense project offices |
Mission
Develop, procure, and field the Army’s air and missile defense materiel: interceptors, launchers, radars, and the short-range and counter-small-UAS layers that protect maneuver formations and fixed sites. The counterpart integration and battle-command function sits with CPE_Integrated_Fires.
No Title 10 section establishes this office by name. Army capability program executives are designated by the Army Acquisition Executive, the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology at 10 U.S.C. § 7016(b)(5)(A), acting under the Secretary of the Army’s authority to organize the Department of the Army at 10 U.S.C. § 7013(b)(2), and the portfolio acquisition executive role such an office performs is defined at 10 U.S.C. § 1732, added by Pub. L. 119-60 in December 2025, as explained at Title_10_Structure.
Subordinate Organizations
Project and product offices carried from PEO_Missiles_and_Space:
- PM_Lower_Tier_Project_Office (LTPO) — Patriot and the LTAMDS radar
- PM_Cruise_Missile_Defense_Systems (CMDS) — Indirect Fire Protection Capability, C-RAM, M-SHORAD, counter-UAS
- PM_Counter-Unmanned_Aircraft_Systems — counter-small-UAS materiel lines
- PM_Terminal_High_Altitude_Area_Defense lineage and Army missile defense integration with the Missile_Defense_Agency
Note
Project office boundaries inside PAE_Fires were still moving through 2026. Confirm the owning office in the solicitation.
Program Element families
- 0604114A Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense
- 0607865A Patriot Product Improvement
- 0604117A Maneuver Short Range Air Defense
- 0605052A Indirect Fire Protection Capability (see also PE_0605052A_IFPC_Inc2_Block1)
- 0604403A Future Interceptor
- Counter-UAS: 0604531A, 0605531A, 0609135A, 0602135A, 0603135A
- 0603305A Army Missile Defense Systems and 0603327A Air and Missile Defense Systems
- 0602150A and 0603466A Air and Missile Defense
- 0604019A Expanded Mission Area Missile
- 0203801A Missile and Air Defense Product Improvement
See Program Elements and Appropriations.
Why it matters
Cost per kill is the organizing problem, and the Army is buying its way out of it. PAE_Fires and CPE Defensive Fires ran a Low-Cost Interceptor industry day in 2026 and put the largest prize pool in xTech history behind xTech Apex Intercept to pull in low-cost interceptor technology. That is an explicit, funded invitation to non-traditional entrants.
Counter-UAS is the fastest-growing line in the Army and the most fragmented. Detection sits partly with CPE_Intelligence_Spectrum_Warfare, effectors here, and battle management with CPE_Integrated_Fires. Vendors routinely pitch the wrong office. Read Counter_UAS and Counter_UAS_Doctrine before engaging.
Patriot and LTAMDS are generational recapitalization. Raytheon anchors both, with Lockheed_Martin on PAC-3 MSE interceptors. Production rate increases driven by Ukraine, Israel, and Indo-Pacific demand have opened second-source and capacity work down the supply chain: seekers, GaN transmit-receive modules, launchers, power.
IFPC and M-SHORAD are the mid-tier growth lines, with Leidos Dynetics on IFPC and General Dynamics on the Stryker-based M-SHORAD platform, plus directed-energy variants that come and go with budget cycles.
FMS is heavy here. Air and missile defense is among the largest Army foreign military sales categories, coordinated with DASA_Defense_Exports_Cooperation.
See Also
- PAE_Fires — parent portfolio
- CPE_Offensive_Fires and CPE_Integrated_Fires — the other two fires CPEs
- CPE_Intelligence_Spectrum_Warfare — the sensing and EW side of counter-UAS
- Counter_UAS, Counter_UAS_Doctrine, Kill_Chain
- ASAALT, T2COM, Fires_Center_of_Excellence
- Program Elements, Defense_Acquisition_System