The Army’s Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office and the Navy Strategic Systems Programs conducted the highly anticipated test Thursday at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, according to the Defense Department. The event marks the first live-fire test for the Army’s Long Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW) — also known as Dark Eagle — with a battery operations center and transporter erector launcher.

“This test builds on several flight tests in which the Common Hypersonic Glide Body achieved hypersonic speed at target distances and demonstrates that we can put this capability in the hands of the warfighter,” Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said in a statement.

The event also marked the second successful end-to-end flight test of the AUR in 2024, according to the Pentagon.

The Common Hypersonic Glide Body is a collaboration effort between the Army and the Navy to develop and field a hypersonic missile for each service. The Army intends to integrate the system into ground launchers for Dark Eagle, while the sea service plans to integrate it into a ship-launched hypersonic capability called Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS). 

As adversaries like China and Russia tout their own advancements in hypersonic missiles, the U.S. military has raced to field systems of their own and will soon move into the next phase of development — dubbed “hypersonics 2.0 and 3.0.” The high-speed weapons are able to maneuver through the atmosphere at speeds of Mach 5 or greater, making it difficult for enemy air defenses to detect and defeat them.

The successful AUR test for the Common Hypersonic Glide Vehicle comes after a series of prior aborted and failed events that have delayed fielding for both hypersonic weapons. The services previously called off tests due to problems with the system’s launcher, after which the Army and Navy revised their testing plans and schedule. 

Following a successful end-to-end flight test in June, Army acquisition chief Doug Bush told reporters on multiple occasions that the services would conduct one more key AUR test before the end of 2024 in order to decide whether to field the system next year.

The Army has already delivered the first LRHW capability — without the all-up rounds — to the 1st Multi-Domain Task Force, 5th Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment, 17th Field Artillery Brigade unit at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state. Meanwhile, the Navy is planning to field CPS aboard Zumwalt-class guided-missile destroyers and Virginia-class attack submarines in the next few years.

Data collected from the recent test will support plans to deliver the common hypersonic AUR for both ground- and sea-based fielding, according to a Pentagon news release. The Defense Department declined to provide any additional details regarding fielding timelines and expectations for both programs.

“This test marks an important milestone in the development of one of our most advanced weapons systems,” Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro said in a statement. “As we approach the first delivery of this capability to our Army partners, we will continue to press forward to integrate Conventional Prompt Strike into our Navy surface and subsurface ships to help ensure we remain the world’s preeminent fighting force.”

Leidos is the prime contractor for the Common Hypersonic Glide Body, while Lockheed Martin serves as the prime contractor for both the Army’s LRHW and the Navy’s CPS.

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Over the next couple of years, the Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC), the Pentagon’s organization dedicated to developing overarching joint operational and integrating concepts, plans to move into the next phases of hypersonic weapons development known as “hypersonics 2.0 and 3.0,” Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and JROC Chair Adm. Christopher Grady told DefenseScoop.

The effort will focus on analyzing exactly how the technology will contribute to closing future “kill webs” — that is, the multi-layered and multi-directional structure of attack leveraging assets from all domains, Grady said Nov. 9 in an exclusive interview during a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the University of Notre Dame’s new hypersonics testing facility.

“It gets back to the kill web. So, where do hypersonics fit into how we are going to fight?” he said. “We know that hypersonics allow us to get after time-critical, heavily defended targets. We know that hypersonics allow us to defeat adversary hypersonics. And then, we also know that hypersonics allow us to leverage hypersonic aircraft and spacecraft missions in those two domains.”

In recent years, the United States has raced to field hypersonic weapons capable of flying at speeds of Mach 5 or higher. In addition to their speed, hypersonics maneuver through the Earth’s atmosphere mid-flight, making them harder to detect and defeat compared to traditional ballistic missiles that have a more predictable flight path through space.

Both China and Russia are actively developing and testing their own hypersonic systems, putting pressure on the Pentagon to do the same. But the technology is extremely complex and individual programs have run into a number of hurdles — particularly during test campaigns — meaning the capability has yet to cross the finish line.

While program management for hypersonic weapons falls to the services, the JROC plays a role in identifying joint capability gaps and then establishing “large R requirements” for the entire Defense Department, Grady noted.

“This is the top-down approach. And so we try to write a really strong requirement that says, ‘This is the value proposition for hypersonics.’ And I think we’ve done a pretty good job,” Grady said. “We do things across capability portfolios now, so this fits into our kill web analysis that [the Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation office] and the rest run.”

But before the Pentagon can implement those next phases, the services must continue down the path to developing and testing their respective systems. 

The Army is working alongside the Navy to co-develop a common hypersonic glide body, which the Army will integrate into ground launchers for its version — known as the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW) or Dark Eagle — while the sea service plans to use a ship-launched capability called Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS).

Although both services reported a successful end-to-end flight test in June, a series of prior aborted and failed tests have delayed fielding for both weapons by at least a year. The Army is planning to conduct one more flight test for the LRHW by the end of the year to inform whether it can field the complete system to the first unit in 2025. Meanwhile, the Navy is continuing its test campaign for CPS, which it hopes to field aboard Zumwalt-class guided-missile destroyers and Virginia-class attack submarines in the next few years.

As for the Air Force, the service decided to not procure or continue development of the AGM-183A Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) in fiscal 2025 after years of inconsistent testing results. The Air Force is pursuing another air-launched hypersonic weapon — the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM) — and plans to begin its flight test campaign in FY ’25.

Broadly, the Defense Department has recognized mishaps during hypersonic flight test campaigns and is working to close those gaps through a number of efforts, including partnerships with academic institutions and international partners that can assist with test efforts.

A key benefit to working with universities on emerging technology development is that many have begun emphasizing both fundamental and applied research, serving as dual-use facilities for the Pentagon, Jeffrey Rhoads, vice president for research and professor at Notre Dame’s Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, told DefenseScoop.

“I would argue that universities, at least many of us, are stretching across that valley as far as we can,” Rhoads said in an interview. “I think, at the same time, the department and industry are stretching from the other direction to try to de-risk things writ large.”

Another focus is on taking advantage of adaptive buying strategies such as Middle Tier Acquisition — which many hypersonic programs use — to make technology transfer between government research organizations, industry and academic institutions to the Defense Department as quick as possible, Grady said.

He also emphasized the importance of working with Congress on getting flexible funding.

“The ability to move money within line items will be critical of the system that we have now with congressional oversight — that’s entirely appropriate,” Grady said. “We have to earn that trust from Congress and show them that we can do this, and we are embarking on methods to do that across the services and within the department.”

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Raytheon received an $81 million contract to work on the More Opportunities with the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept, or MoHAWC, the Pentagon announced Saturday. The new effort is a successor to the HAWC program — a joint initiative between DARPA and the Air Force to develop and demonstrate an air-breathing hypersonic cruise missile — that wrapped up in January with its final successful flight test.

The follow-on effort aims to continue development, integration and demonstration of technologies to prove the effectiveness and efficiency of air-launched hypersonic cruise missiles, Salvatore Buccellato, DARPA program manager, told DefenseScoop in an email.

“These technologies include advancing hydrocarbon scramjet-powered propulsion operation, upgrading aircraft integration algorithms, and improving manufacturing approaches,” Buccellato wrote.

Under the new contract, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman will build and fly additional HAWC flight vehicles, applying data and lessons learned during the original program to mature the weapon’s design, a company press release said. The team will add manufacturing improvements to the original vehicle’s design and flight tests to “expand its operating envelope while validating system performance models,” the release added.

DARPA’s budget request for fiscal 2024 includes $30 million for MoHAWC. The program’s estimated deadline is January 2026, according to the contract announcement.

MoHAWC is one of the many hypersonic weapons programs currently underway within the Pentagon. Able to travel at speeds of Mach 5 or greater through the atmosphere and maneuver mid-flight, hypersonic missiles are much harder to detect and intercept when compared to conventional ballistic missiles that fly predictable flight paths.

Raytheon served as a prime contractor for DARPA’s original HAWC program and conducted several flight tests of a missile propelled by a Northrop Grumman air-breathing propulsion system. Also called a scramjet, air-breathing engines achieve hypersonic flight by pulling oxygen in from the atmosphere.

“We applied learnings from each successful HAWC flight test to ensure that it is the most sophisticated system of its kind,” Colin Whelan, president of Advanced Technology for Raytheon, said Monday in a statement. “Continuing this important program will expand our knowledge of hypersonic flight and allow us to deliver the critical capability our warfighters need.”

Lockheed Martin also worked on the HAWC program, partnering with Aerojet Rocketdyne. However, Buccellato confirmed to DefenseScoop that Raytheon will be the only performer on the follow-on MoHAWC effort. 

While HAWC was a joint effort with the Air Force, MoHAWC will bring in both the Air Force and the Navy for collaboration “to meet future technology insertion dates for service programs of record,” Buccellato noted.

The Air Force has two different hypersonic programs: the Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) and the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM). After ARRW failed an all-up-round prototype test in March, the service decided to scrap its procurement plans for the weapon and instead focus on the more successful HACM.

Raytheon is also the prime contractor for HACM and received a $985 million contract from the Air Force in September. Like HAWC, the weapon is a cruise missile — which the service has had a bit more success with compared to boost-glide hypersonics such as ARRW. The airframe and engine designs of HAWC are very close to HACM’s, meaning that program will also directly benefit from MoHAWC’s advancements, according to Raytheon.

The Navy, however, has focused its hypersonic development efforts on Conventional Prompt Strike — a sea-launched weapon to be installed on Zumwalt-class destroyers in fiscal 2025 and Virginia-class submarines in fiscal 2028. The sea service is also pursuing the Hypersonic Air Launched Offensive Anti-Surface (HALO) weapon, although Navy program managers have indicated the weapon might not actually reach hypersonic speeds.

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Hypersonic systems are able to travel faster than Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound. Their high velocity speed coupled with their ability to maneuver as they fly through the atmosphere make hypersonic missiles much harder to detect and intercept when compared to a traditional ballistic missile that travels a predictable flight path.

These capabilities are a top modernization priority for the Pentagon, and the outcome of the department’s technology efforts will affect how well the U.S. military stacks up against advanced adversaries, such as China and Russia, in the future.

The Pentagon is pursuing multiple types of hypersonic weapons — namely, boost-glide systems and cruise missiles — that have unique characteristics.

‘Think of it in terms of energy’

The Defense Department has spent years and billions of dollars — including roughly $4.5 billion approved in the fiscal 2023 budget — researching and developing hypersonics as the United States tries to catch up with China and Russia’s matured programs. 

Efforts have focused on operationalizing two types of systems: boost-glide missiles and cruise missiles. While the Army and Navy’s efforts have focused on boost-glide capabilities, the Air Force was pursuing air-launched variants of both, as ARRW is a boost-glide system while HACM is an air-breathing cruise missile.

Mark Lewis, who recently served as director of NDIA’s Emerging Technologies Institute and was recently hired to be CEO of the Purdue Applied Research Institute, said that while it would be ideal to have both types of weapon, it makes sense to prioritize a cruise missile like HACM for tactical missions that the Air Force would conduct.

“If you look at the two, I like to think of it in terms of energy,” said Lewis, who previously served as acting deputy undersecretary of defense for research and engineering and director of defense research and engineering for modernization at the Pentagon.

Boost-glide missiles like ARRW are first launched from a rocket booster that gives it enough energy to reach hypersonic speeds and then glide along the atmosphere without using additional propulsion, whereas cruise missiles are powered by air-breathing jet engines — also called scramjets — that pull in oxygen from the atmosphere to achieve hypersonic flight, he explained.

“In the boost glider, I’m putting all of my energy up front,” Lewis told DefenseScoop. “With the air breather, I’m releasing my energy as I fly through the atmosphere almost continuously. So it’s really about energy management.”

Both types of systems are an incredibly difficult feat of physics to get correct for different reasons, said Joe Jewell, assistant professor at Purdue University’s School of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

“The technology to do that boost glide, the main thing you need is you need to deal with the thermal load, you need to accelerate it up to the speed that it’s designed to operate at — and that’s usually done with a separate rocket booster — and then you need to intelligently use that energy you’ve got … and bleed that off in an intelligent way such that you don’t slow down your maneuvering vehicle too much before it reaches its objective,” Jewell told DefenseScoop.

The limitation of boost glide hypersonics like ARRW is that the energy the system gets during the initial thrust of energy from the rocket engine is all it will ever have to achieve high speeds, he said.

But cruise missile hypersonic missiles can add thrust or energy to their flight profile as they maneuver along their flight path, due to the air-breathing engine, he added.

“In an air-breathing engine, you can actually get some of the energy back. Maybe you can accelerate through your flight path,” Jewell said. “It just adds another dimension to how maneuverable, and therefore survivable, the vehicle is at the cost of complexity and expense.”

However, in choosing to move forward with an air-breathing hypersonic weapon over a much more fully developed rocket-launched variant, the Air Force has picked the more complex of the two to develop, he added.

The air moving through a scramjet engine flows at supersonic speeds of at least Mach 1, which makes ignition very challenging, making it more difficult to design the physical vehicle, he explained.

“It’s only designed to work over this limited range of Mach numbers. You have to get to that Mach number before you can even test it, so that’s hard. And then you have to keep it lit,” he said, noting that it’s been compared to “keeping a match lit in a hurricane.”

Lewis noted that the different propulsion methods of the two variants affect what they have to carry. Because a boost-glide hypersonic weapon uses a rocket engine to take off, it needs to carry a liquid oxidizer that can ignite its fuel. An air-breathing hypersonic weapon doesn’t need a liquid oxidizer because it uses oxygen pulled in from the atmosphere.

“If you do things right, all things being equal, the air breather can go further on a tank of gas because the air breather’s tank of gas is just the fuel,” Lewis said. “Whereas the rocket’s tank of gas is the fuel, plus some oxidizer with which to burn the fuel.”

The price tag matters too

The differences between boost glide and air-breathing hypersonic missiles, as well as how the Defense Department prioritizes them, also comes down to cost management, Lewis noted.

“For a boost glider, we basically know how to build rocket engines. … Yeah you’ve got to develop maybe a new booster, but we know how to do that. So you have to invest all the technology in the weapon itself,” he said. “But with the air breather, you’ve got a different set of challenges because you’ve got to figure out how to build the engine … and then it has to integrate exquisitely with the rest of the vehicle.”

Until recently, the Air Force intended to buy both types of hypersonic missiles that could be launched from the service’s aircraft. For fiscal 2024, the service is requesting $381.5 million for research and development of HACM, which is being built by Raytheon. The Air Force also requested around $150 million for R&D of the Lockheed Martin-made ARRW. However, it plans to scrap its procurement plans for ARRW once it completes its planned prototyping program in fiscal 2024.

HACM is “compatible with more of our aircraft and it will give us more combat capability overall,” Secretary of the Air Force Kendall told lawmakers last month while testifying to the House Appropriations Committee’s defense subcommittee. 

Lewis agreed, noting that boost-glide hypersonics are generally much larger than air breathers and that it’s very difficult to scale the systems down to fit on an aircraft.

“Because they’re not carrying their oxygen with them, an air breather is packaged batter,” Lewis said. “You can build a hypersonic cruise missile that’s basically in a smaller package than the corresponding tactical boost glider. That means you can get more of them on the airplane, you can get more in the bomb bay, you get a deeper magazine.”

Even though the air-breathing hypersonics are less developed, the belief is that they will be less expensive per round than boost-glide variations, Lewis said. While there are costs associated with research, development and associated technologies of an air-breathing system, it is a much less complex piece of machinery once the vehicle’s design is perfected, he said.

“They’re really just ducts, and you’re squirting fuel in and igniting it and producing thrust that way. So they can be relatively simple devices,” he said. “The devil, of course, is in the details, but advanced manufacturing capabilities — things like additive manufacturing, as just one example — reduce the cost of manufacturing.” 

As the Air Force prioritizes HACM, both the Army and Navy are on the cusp of fielding their own hypersonic weapons — the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW) and the Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS), respectively. Both are boost-glide hypersonic missiles, although the Army’s will be ground-launched and the Navy’s will be fired from destroyers and submarines at sea.

The Army is looking for $901 to fund further development of the LRHW. The service deployed the first platform at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington in March for training and mission rehearsal, and by the end of 2023 plans to have the first battery as part of the 1st Multi-Domain Task Force.

Meanwhile, the Navy — which has been working with the Army on a common hypersonic glide body — plans to have CPS integrated into Zumwalt-class destroyers by fiscal 2025.

The Navy is currently asking Congress for $901 million in fiscal 2024 for research, development, test and evaluation of the CPS. The sea service also wants to buy eight initial “all-up rounds” and canisters for the weapon in 2024, with a plan to spend upwards of $50 million per round, on average, over the next five years to procure dozens of the missiles.

Undersectary of Defense for Aquisition and Sustainment William LaPlante said the Pentagon needs to do more to lower the price tag of its hypersonic weapons.

“We’re just for the first time as a country getting to production of hypersonics, and not surprisingly the average unit cost is … higher than we want it to be and we need to bring it down,” LaPlante told DefenseScoop at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space conference last week.

For hypersonics writ large, officials should shoot for a per round price tag of less than $10 million, he suggested.

“I would think an average procurement unit cost of in the single digit millions is where we should aim for it. And we’re actually looking at some that are as low as $3 million an all-up round. That’s where we want to be,” LaPlante said.

“In general, we’re looking at concepts for cruise missiles and we would like to get it under 10 — ideally as low as $3 million,” he added. “I’m not going to name the system [that might be as low as $3 million per round] because it’s still pre-decisional. But the more important point rather than what that system is, is that we want to get that price point down under in the single digits.”

In addition to acquiring CPS for its ships, the Navy is also looking to equip its aircraft carrier-based fighter jets with a Hypersonic Air Launched Offensive (HALO) Anti-Surface weapon, and recently awarded two contracts to Raytheon Missiles and Defense and Lockheed Martin to pursue the technology. The HALO, which despite its name might not actually fly at hypersonic speeds, may be a cruise missile rather than a boost-glide system because of the size constraints associated with carrier air wing operations.

The preferences between each of the services is reflective of their mission requirements, Lewis said. Both the LRHW and CPS are larger weapons that are difficult to scale down to a size that can fit onto an aircraft due to their physics, he said.

“At the large scale I’d say, ‘Hey if I want to build something big and hypersonic, I probably want to go with a rocket-boost glide,’” Lewis said. “But if I want to build something tactical that fits on an airplane, then right now I would argue the air breather is the more mature technology.”

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The sea service plans to buy 64 CPS missiles in fiscal 2024-2028 at a total cost of more than $3.6 billion. The “flyaway unit cost” would average $51 million, and the gross weapon system unit cost would average $56.5 million, according to budget justification documents.

By comparison, many of the Navy’s other advanced missiles cost a few million dollars per round or less.

The service plans to begin deploying the CPS capability on stealthy Zumwalt-class destroyers in fiscal 2025 and on Virginia-class submarines in fiscal 2028.

“We’re just for the first time as a country getting to production of hypersonics, and not surprisingly the average unit cost is … higher than we want it to be and we need to bring it down,” Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment William LaPlante told DefenseScoop at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space conference on Tuesday.

“I would say there’s very promising manufacturing and technologies that are out there, including with other partners and allies, that can get it much lower than the $50 million,” he added.

For hypersonics writ large, officials should shoot for a per round price tag of less than $10 million, he suggested.

“I would think an average procurement unit cost of in the single digit millions is where we should aim for it. And we’re actually looking at some that are as low as $3 million an all-up round. That’s where we want to be,” he said.

The “single digit millions” figure could apply to either hypersonic cruise missiles or boost glide systems, LaPlante said.

“In general, we’re looking at concepts for cruise missiles and we would like to get it under 10 — ideally as low as $3 million,” he told DefenseScoop “I’m not going to name the system [that might be as low as $3 million per round] because it’s still pre-decisional. But the more important point rather than what that system is, is that we want to get that price point down under in the single digits.”

In addition to CPS, the Navy is also pursuing a so-called “hypersonic” weapon known as HALO, although that air-launched system might not technically reach hypersonic speeds of Mach 5 or higher. The service aims to field HALO in fiscal 2029.

The Army and Air Force are also pursuing their own fast-flying systems such as the Long Range Hypersonic Weapon and the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile, respectively.

Hypersonics are highly sought by the U.S. military because their speed and maneuverable and expected to pose a major challenge to enemy air defenses. Potential adversaries such as China and Russia have already fielded these types of capabilities, and the Pentagon is trying to catch up.

“The CPS weapon system will deliver a hypersonic conventional offensive strike capability through a depressed boost-glide trajectory to prosecute deep-inland, time-critical, soft and medium-hardened targets in contested environments,” according to Navy budget documents.

However, some of the Defense Department’s recent hypersonics tests haven’t gone as well as officials had hoped, including for the Air Force’s ARRW program. But LaPlante said the Pentagon shouldn’t let that deter officials from pushing forward.

“The second piece is really changing the mentality of how we think about ‘test failure or success.’ The only failed test is one where you don’t learn anything … We have to have much better of an appetite to learn, because the worst thing you can do is have a failure and say, ‘Oh, it’s a failure, we didn’t learn anything,’ and then stop,” LaPlante said.

He noted that the DOD has halted hypersonics work in the past due to perceived failures, but potential adversaries like China and Russia kept pushing forward with their programs.

The Biden administration is trying to bolster the industrial base for these types of technologies, and President Biden recently invoked the Defense Production Act to further those aims.

“The final piece is we did get the Defense Production Act Title III [authorities] for underpinning materials and the like for hypersonics about a month ago. So, we’re not stopping for hypersonics. We’re gonna keep going,” LaPlante said.

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The sea service plans to buy 64 CPS missiles in fiscal 2024-2028 at a total cost of more than $3.6 billion. The “flyaway unit cost” would average $51 million, and the gross weapon system unit cost would average $56.5 million.

By comparison, many of the Navy’s other advanced missiles cost a few million dollars per round or less.

Hypersonic weapons are highly sought by the Pentagon because they are designed to fly faster than Mach 5, be highly maneuverable and pose a major challenge to enemy air defenses. Potential adversaries such as China and Russia have already fielded these types of capabilities.

“The CPS weapon system will deliver a hypersonic conventional offensive strike capability through a depressed boost-glide trajectory to prosecute deep-inland, time-critical, soft and medium-hardened targets in contested environments,” according to Navy budget documents.

The services plans to begin deploying the capability on stealthy Zumwalt-class destroyers in fiscal 2025 and on Virginia-class submarines in fiscal 2028.

“Procurement efforts under this program element will provide a weapon system capability that: (1) is non-ballistic over the majority of the flight path; (2) controls stage drop; (3) provides positive control and precision accuracy from launch to impact; (4) provides adequate cross-range/maneuverability to avoid over-flight issues; (5) provides prompt lethal effects on targets; and (6) is man-safe and deployable for surface and submerged platforms,” the new budget justification documents stated.

Fiscal 2024 is the first year of procurement for CPS all-up rounds and accompanying canisters.

The service plans to buy eight CPS missiles in 2024 at a cost of $341 million; 10 in fiscal 2025 for $441 million; 11 in fiscal 2026 for $663 million; 16 in fiscal 2027 for $989 million; and 19 in fiscal 2028 for $1.18 billion.

Lockheed Martin had been tapped to provide program management, engineering development, systems integration, long lead material, and special tooling and equipment in support of CPS missile production. The contractor is expected to provide launcher systems, weapon control, all-up rounds, and platform integration support.

The hypersonic systems will have various technology insertions that will affect the per unit cost over time, according to the Navy.

“Technology Insertion – 22 (TI-22) is the first hypersonic system to be fielded onboard ZUMWALT Class DDG. The TI process enables the program to continue accelerated and iterative improvements to system capability, manufacturability, and affordability and provide for obsolescence management. In FY 2025, the procurement profile consists of eight TI-22s and two TI-24s. The different TI unit costs drive the unit cost increase displayed in FY 2025. The associated Procurement Support costs for that year will also reflect a mixed unit cost,” the budget justification documents stated.

The Navy is asking lawmakers for $901 million in fiscal 2024 for research, development, test and evaluation work for the Conventional Prompt Strike program. The service has not yet released its RDT&E budget justification documents covering the full 2024-2028 time period.

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Known as Sabre, the sensor payloads will be able to collect and disseminate data created during flight tests for ballistic missiles and, eventually, hypersonic missiles.

“This program will demonstrate mission utility of the Sabre mission payload functions and concepts of operation prior to potential incorporation in future Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) Tranches,” according to a solicitation posted on Sam.gov on Thursday.

Data needed to study the performance of high-speed missiles is currently gathered by fleets of aircraft and ships — an expensive and limiting process that can be eliminated if the Sabre payloads prove successful. The SDA also aims to significantly reduce the time it takes to collect and send the information by using the agency’s planned transport layer to gather and transfer data in near-real time. 

The payloads will also have alternative pointing, navigation and timing (PNT) and tactical electronic support capabilities, the solicitation noted.

The solicitation is for the “design, development, fabrication, integration, test, and delivery” of three flight units, as well as operation and sustainment services for up to three years, the request for proposal stated.

The work will also include support for integrating those payloads onto the SDA’s National Defense Space Architecture Experimental Testbed (NExT), according to the solicitation. The collection of low-Earth orbit spacecraft are intended to host experimental space-based capabilities for test and evaluation by the agency.

Ball Aerospace received an Other Transaction prototype agreement last year to develop and operate 10 NExT satellites slated to begin launching in 2024. Three of those 10 will host the Sabre payloads acquired under the new contract, the RFP stated.

The SDA will use an Other Transaction authority to award a firm-fixed-price contract for the three Sabre payloads. The first payload will be launched no earlier than Dec. 1, 2024, according to the solicitation.

Responses to the solicitation are due by April 17.

The RFP comes as the Pentagon is looking to ramp up research and development of its various hypersonic missile programs. U.S. adversaries like China and Russia have already made leaps in developmental progress on these types of weapons — which can fly at speeds of Mach 5 or higher and be highly maneuverable.

Each of the services has at least one hypersonic weapon under development. By the end of fiscal 2023, the Army plans to field its first system known as the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon. The Navy is developing its own system called Conventional Prompt Strike and is asking Congress for $901 million in funding for research, development, test and evaluation in its budget request for fiscal 2024, according to budget documents.

At the same time, the Air Force has two hypersonic missiles in development — the Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) and the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM). Budget documents indicate the service is requesting $150 million from lawmakers to fund ARRW’s research and development in fiscal 2024.

Overall, the Pentagon is requesting $11 billion in its fiscal 2024 budget request for hypersonic weapons and other long-range missiles, according to budget documents.

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The sea service is also looking to buy eight “all-up rounds” and associated canisters for CPS weapons in 2024, marking the first procurement of the missiles. The Navy intends to procure a total of 64 rounds in fiscal 2024-2028, according to budget documents released Monday.

Hypersonic weapons are a high priority for the Department of Defense writ large as it tries to catch up with China and Russia in this area. These types of missiles are designed to fly faster than Mach 5 and be highly maneuverable against enemy air defenses.

“The CPS weapon system will deliver a hypersonic conventional offensive strike capability through a depressed boost-glide trajectory to prosecute deep-inland, time-critical, soft and medium-hardened targets in contested environments,” according to Navy budget documents.

The service is partnering with the Army on a common hypersonic glide body (CHGB) that consists of a 34.5-inch two-stage booster and a thermal protection system.

“The Navy will design, develop, and produce the missile booster, as well as integrate the missile booster with the CHGB. Each service will use the common hypersonic missile while developing individual weapon control systems and launchers tailored for launch from sea or land,” per the budget documents.

The Navy plans to begin deploying the capability on stealthy Zumwalt-class destroyers in fiscal 2025 and on Virginia-class submarines in fiscal 2028. Some weapon systems are slated to be removed from the destroyers to allow for integration of CPS technology. Engineering efforts are also planned for fiscal 2024 to support future integration on Virginia-class Block V hulls, in-air launcher testing, construction of the underwater launch test facility and fabrication of specialty equipment to facilitate testing slated for fiscal 2025, according to budget documents.

In February, the service announced that Lockheed Martin had been awarded a $1.18 billion cost-plus-incentive-fee and cost-plus-fixed-fee contract modification, to provide program management, engineering development, systems integration, long lead material, and special tooling and equipment in support of CPS missile production. If all contract options are exercised, it would be worth up to $2.22 billion.

Lockheed is expected to provide launcher systems, weapon control, all-up rounds, and platform integration support, the contractor said in a press release.

The Pentagon has encountered challenges in testing hypersonics technology. Most recently, a missile flight test scheduled for March 5 had to be scrapped by the Navy and Army due to an issue associated with battery activation — not the missile itself.

During a press briefing on Monday during the fiscal 2024 budget rollout, Navy Undersecretary Erik Raven was asked about the service’s decision to request funding for CPS procurement given the current state of testing.

“On CPS, I think what you’re seeing here [in the budget request] is … an endorsement of the capability, again, very central to national pacing challenges [posed by China] in the Indo-Pacific. The point of testing is to learn things, but we have confidence that we’re going to be able to field the system as required. And we’ll work with our industrial partners to make sure that we stay on track,” Raven said.

At the annual SNA symposium in January, DefenseScoop asked Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro if he was confident that hypersonic weapons will be ready to be deployed on Zumwalts and Virginia-class boats by the target dates.

“What I am confident of, is that I’m going to put as much resources and much attention, as much intellectual capacity in terms of my management team, and work … as closely with industry as we can to make that a priority and a reality. Now, if we have technical challenges that develop along the way, we’ll deal with those. But what I do know is that if we put the right talent, we put the right resources into it, hopefully, we will get there [on the Zumwalts] by 2025 or shortly afterwards. But this is a major priority for the Department of the Navy, and I am completely focused along with the CNO on making this happen,” he said.

Last week, Vice Adm. Johnny Wolfe, director of the Navy’s strategic systems programs, testified during a hearing of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, where he and other Pentagon officials provided an update on where things stand with the department’s hypersonics efforts.

“I remain confident that the CPS program will be ready to field the hypersonic weapon system upon the availability of the Navy platforms,” Wolfe told lawmakers.

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The two services are working together on a common hypersonic glide body that could be used for the Army’s ground-launched Long Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW) and the Navy’s sea-launched Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) system. The Pentagon wants these types of missiles because their speed and maneuverability are expected to pose challenges for enemy air defenses and provide a new quick-strike capability.

“The Army and Navy are also partnered to execute all flight tests in a series of joint flight campaigns to validate the current designs and inform future science and technology efforts,” Lt. Gen. Robert Rasch, the Army’s director for hypersonics, directed energy and space, said in written testimony to the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces on Friday.

“The Army and Navy’s hypersonic partnership has allowed each Service to support more aggressive timelines than separate development programs would have in order to quickly deliver hypersonic capabilities. The sharing of critical components drives cost savings for both Services based on economies of scale,” he added.

However, plans for another flight test last weekend had to be scrapped.

“We recently prepared to conduct a hypersonic test on [March 5] from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. And as a result of the pre-flight checks during that event, the test did not occur. We are still in the process of processing and analyzing the data we received at that event,” Rasch told members of the subcommittee during a hearing on Friday.

Vice Adm. Johnny Wolfe, director of the Navy’s strategic systems programs, indicated that a problem associated with a battery was to blame.

“Automated pre-flight checks identified that a battery did not activate, which resulted in not conducting the test. We are aggressively investigating the cause of the no test and will continue to move forward with our development and additional testing in support of Army fielding as soon as the cause is identified and corrected,” he told lawmakers.

The officials did not provide any additional details about the incident or the system that was expected to be launched.

The Army aims to field its first set of LRHW weapons by the end of this year. It’s not immediately clear how much of a setback the scrapped test will be.

At the annual AUSA convention in October, Rasch was asked whether failures in upcoming tests would result in delayed fielding of the LRHW.

“It depends on what you mean by ‘fail,’” he replied. “There’s learning opportunities in every one of these events. And so I don’t know if I could characterize now and say … ‘if this [anomaly] happens, then it will cause a delay.’ Obviously, we’re moving fast. … If we have an anomaly and we don’t really reach our somewhat stretch goals, we’ll sit down and analyze it and talk amongst the team and manage the risk as we go forward.”

After mentioning the recently scrapped test at the hearing on Friday, he told lawmakers that he’s still “confident, however, in our team, and we will persevere together to get this system capable and safe for fielding to our soldiers.”

The Navy aims to install CPS systems on Zumwalt-class destroyers in 2025. The vessels will have to be modified to accommodate them. It later plans to put the weapons on submarines.

“I remain confident that the CPS program will be ready to field the hypersonic weapon system upon the availability of the Navy platforms,” Wolfe told lawmakers on Friday.

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Hypersonics are highly sought by the United States and other major powers because they can fly faster than Mach 5, be highly maneuverable against enemy air defenses and quickly attack time-sensitive targets.

The U.S. Air Force, Army and Navy are all pursuing different variants of the systems. Other DOD organizations, such as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Missile Defense Agency, are also assisting with the technology development.

At DefenseScoop’s DefenseTalks conference in September, Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment William LaPlante said hypersonics will be “very, very, very powerful” weapons.

The Pentagon moved the ball forward on several programs in 2022 as it aims to begin fielding new systems in the next few years.

HACM

In September, the Air Force awarded Raytheon Missiles and Defense a $985 million contract to develop an air-launched Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM).

Hypersonic cruise missiles use air-breathing scramjet engines for propulsion, whereas the hypersonic boost-glide systems that the Pentagon is also working on use rocket boosters to reach extremely high speeds.

“The task order provides for the HACM weapon system design, development and initial delivery through the performance of model-based critical design review, qualification, integration, manufacturing and testing,” the Defense Department said in the contract award announcement.

Work is expected to be completed by March 2027.

The Air Force wants to prioritize the integration of the weapon with the F-15E fighter jet to facilitate flight tests.

Raytheon and Northrop Grumman have been working on air-breathing scramjet systems for DARPA’s HAWC program. That technology could transition into the HACM program, according to Chris Haynes, Northrop Grumman’s senior director for strategy and business development. A flight test of the companies’ HAWC prototype was conducted last year.

Lockheed Martin and Aerojet Rocketdyne have also provided their own prototype for the HAWC program, which set a scramjet record for endurance during a flight test earlier this year, according to DARPA.

ARRW

The Air Force in December conducted its first successful “all-up-round” flight test of a prototype operational Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW). Lockheed Martin has been working on the boost-glide system as part of a rapid prototyping program.

During a Mitchell Institute podcast released in August, Brian Schappacher, Lockheed’s deputy program manager for the Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon, noted that the project was facing an “extremely aggressive schedule” for development and testing.

The 412th Test Wing based at Edwards Air Force Base conducted the recent all-up-round test off the coast of Southern California.

“A B-52H Stratofortress [bomber] successfully released the first All-Up-Round AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon [ARRW],” according to an Air Force press release. “This test was the first launch of a full prototype operational missile. Previous test events focused on proving the booster performance. Following the ARRW’s separation from the aircraft, it reached hypersonic speeds greater than five times the speed of sound, completed its flight path and detonated in the terminal area. Indications show that all objectives were met.”

The ARRW could be operational as early as fall 2023 and will be considered for rapid production, according to Air Force Global Strike Command.

Mayhem

In December, the Air Force Research Lab announced that it awarded a $334 million IDIQ research-and-development contract to Leidos for AFRL’s Mayhem project.

The program calls for developing a hypersonic platform that can both conduct intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and strike missions, according to Leidos.

The air-breathing Mayhem system must be capable of “executing multiple missions with a standardized payload interface, providing a significant technological advancement and future capability,” according to a DOD contract award announcement.

The multi-mission capable is notable because other hypersonic weapons are being designed exclusively for quick-strike operations — not for ISR.

The Mayhem technology is being billed as a more advanced capability than other systems that are in the works.

“Leidos is tasked with designing and developing a large-class version that surpasses current air-breathing systems in range and payload capacity using digital engineering to ensure the design efforts help future development and transition,” Leidos said in a press release.

The initial task order calls for conducting the system requirements review and conceptual design review in a digital engineering environment.

The work under the IDIQ contract is expected to wrap up by October 2028.

LRHW and CPS

The Army and Navy are pursuing a common glide body that is expected to be used for both the ground-launched Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW) and the sea-launched Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) capability.

In October, the Navy office for Strategic Systems Programs and the Army Hypersonic Project Office successfully conducted the second High Operational Tempo for Hypersonics flight campaign from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, which will inform the development of CPS and LRHW.

“During weapon system development, precision sounding rocket launches fill a critical gap between ground testing and full system flight testing. These launches allow for frequent and regular flight testing opportunities to support rapid maturation of offensive and defensive hypersonic technologies. The data collected from the latest sounding rocket campaign will drive warfighting capability improvements for both Navy and Army to ensure continued battlefield dominance,” according to a press release from the Navy office for Strategic Systems Programs.

It called the test “a vital step in the development of a Navy-designed common hypersonic missile, consisting of a Common Hypersonic Glide Body (CHGB) and booster, which will be fielded by both the Navy and Army with individual weapon systems and launchers tailored for launch from sea or land.”

Leidos’ Dynetics subsidiary has been working on the glide body. Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin are also involved in the LRHW and CPS efforts as an engine provider and weapons integrator, respectively.

The Army is aiming to field the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon by the end of fiscal 2023, while the Navy plans to begin fielding Conventional Prompt Strike in 2025.

“We’re confident going into this year, [but there’s] a lot of risk. Absolutely,” Lt. Gen. Robert Rasch, director of hypersonics in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology, said in October during a panel at the Association of the United States Army’s annual convention in Washington. “We’re moving out on a very, very aggressive schedule with our industry partners.”

The Army has already fielded ground support equipment for the LRHW, and soldiers have been training with it.

“We’re now working to finish up the testing and then the actual build out of the all-up round and what we call the all-up round canister munition,” he said.

“We’ll do a couple of more critical live-fire tests this year to characterize not just the hyper glide body, but characterize the two-stage rocket motor, characterize all the ground support equipment, and on path to field at the end of FY23,” Rasch said.

Production and price tags

While the DOD has seen progress in hypersonics in labs and on test ranges, actually transitioning them into production and fielding will be another hurdle.

Aside from some prototyping efforts, “we’ve never, ever produced and manufactured hypersonics ever in this country. It’s been entirely S&T,” LaPlante said at the annual Defense News Conference in September. “So, the real question is … are these companies [that are working on the technology] ready to no-kidding go into production at some degree of rate? And I ask this question, Jon, all the time, and I get reassurance that they’re ready. But the proof will be in the pudding,” he told DefenseScoop at the event.

“I wish I could tell you … that absolutely they’re ready for this. They say they are [and] they will. But if you all know anything about hypersonics … you have very difficult materials issues, thermal management issues, aerodynamics issues,” he added.

LaPlante described the technology as game-changing, noting that adversaries China and Russia are already manufacturing and deploying some of their hypersonic systems.

“If we get — when we get hypersonics into production, we should all pop champagne corks. That will be remarkable because we have never had them in production. Hypersonics has been in the S&T community in this country forever. I love S&T, folks. I am an S&T person. But at some point, you got to let the children out,” he said.

Despite the challenges involved, LaPlante said he’s hopeful that the weapons will be ready for prime time in the not-too-distant future.

“I am actually optimistic. And without getting into specifics … when I visited some of the companies that will do it — I know people there — they know the challenges that they have,” he said. “But … knock on wood, knock on carpet, they’re about one to two years away from production for some of these hypersonic glide vehicles. And if we get there, hallelujah. That’ll be a landmark” for U.S. military modernization.

The DOD has already spent billions of dollars on research, development, test and evaluation for these types of systems. However, the per-unit price tag of the production units will shape how many the Pentagon is able to buy.

“What the hypersonics community is trying to do is shoot towards an all-up round cost that’s reasonable,” LaPlante said at DefenseTalks. “We’re not going to be able to buy very many of them if they’re $80 million all-up rounds. So they’re shooting for somewhere even as low as 10 or 5 million [dollars] a round. And that really is going to drive the numbers.”

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