Hypersonic dart AE cropped

Concept art for Hypersonix’ DART AE (Hypersonix)

SYDNEY: As the huge American defense primes struggle to overcome the technical and manufacturing challenges of building hypersonic weapons, a small civilian Australian company, Hypersonix, may have a shot at improving America’s quest for a successful weapon.

The Hypersonix system, which was briefed to senior American officials in February, appears to offer several advantages over the more complex US systems. The company, which claims the vehicle’s scramjet motor can be 3D printed (additive manufacturing for the purists) in just three weeks, expects first launch of its system next year. In the meantime, Hypersonix has performed a number of shock tunnel tests at the University of Queensland and done extensive modelling on the first version of the vehicle, known as the DART AE.

This positive Australian news stands in pretty stark contrast to the news from America, where Lockheed Martin’s flagship hypersonic weapon, the Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW), has failed three tests in a row and will have to pass several more to meet the Pentagon’s goal of having America’s first combat-ready hypersonic weapon ready for initial production by Sept. 30.

The stakes for Lockheed appear to have grown even higher with the release of the Pentagon’s fiscal 2023 budget request on Monday, with a US Air Force official saying the service no longer plans to procure ARRW in the coming year.

RELATED: Air Force ditches plans to buy first hypersonic ARRW missile in FY23

The Hypersonix scramjet engine can be 3D printed using the extremely hard alloy known as Inconel, with some more exotic coatings for the vehicle’s exposed edges. It uses a mechanically simpler hydrogen system for thrust of its engine, which gives it variable speed control and huge range. And the complete DART AE system is designed to be completely reusable.

“What this is really about is making the most out of our core technology with fixed geometries and no moving parts. And that compares with other systems out there that have got thousands of moving pieces that are incredibly complex … that complexity causes real reliability issues,” Hypersonix co-founder Dave Waterhouse told Breaking Defense. “So we can argue performance reliability, but how that translates in terms of manufacturing, we hadn’t really gone into much detail. So to prove we could do this, we actually 3D printed a working scramjet engine.”

The hydrogen engine is key to the system’s appeal. “And because I can turn on and off, I could skip [off the atmosphere]. So, if you can imagine a stone skipping across the waves as kind of what we can do as well. So we turn it on, or we need to turn it on, bounce off the layer of the atmosphere. Turn on again, bounce again. And that means we can get huge distances or very small volumes of fuel. And we’re talking over 1,000 kilometers out of one kilo,” Waterhouse says.

In January, the company signed a teaming agreement with American company Kratos, who are handling integration and providing what is essentially a sounding rocket for the first stage of launch. That gets the system up to Mach 5. Depending on the range, it can achieve a speed of Mach 12 once the hydrogen scramjet engages, Hypersonix says.

This system can be used as a weapon, for the simple reason that the machine’s speed, combined with the mass of the hypersonic vehicle, packs an enormous explosive wallop on its own. But Hypersonix is a civilian company — so far — and the system was originally designed to be a “green” system to get satellites into space without CO2 emissions, according to company marketing materials.

The small company will be part of the Australian display at the annual Space Symposium, with their own booth. Australia is set to make its presence known at the conference event in Colorado Springs, with the largest delegation ever. The head of the Australian Space Agency, Enrico Palermo, and the head of the country’s brand spanking new Defense Space Command, Air Vice Marshal Cath Roberts, are expected to attend.

It won’t be the first time the firm shows off at a US event. Waterhouse and his co-founder, Michael Smart, were at the SmallSat Symposium in Silicon Valley in early February, a few days after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with defense CEOs to discuss the pace and effectiveness of the US hypersonics effort, so their timing was propitious. Other sources say they spoke with the space head of the Defense Innovation Unit, whose operation might be a good start for such a young and small company with relatively little experience of the defense world.

Reportedly, Hypersonix’s combination of capabilities caught the eye of both senior US defense officials and venture capital investors who were, in the words of one observer, “besotted.”

A senior Pentagon official, familiar with Hypersonix work, said in an email “they are doing some innovative work and we continue to work closely with Australia in hypersonics.”

Of course, Hypersonix’s work won’t just be of interest to the US. Australia is investing in the technology both in a shared effort with the US and on its own. The Australian effort may already have had some success: Defense Minister Peter Dutton announced on January 25 a “highly successful defense flight trial” as part of a program aimed to “counter hypersonic threats,” although further details have been elusive.