Hypersonics at scale: What it takes in terms of tech, manufacturing, and talent
Providing air-breathing and boost-glide hypersonics propulsion requires a holistic approach to address each system’s unique needs for speed.
Lockheed Martin is designing what it calls a new Hypersonic Strike Weapon-Air Breathing (which goes by the awful acronym HSW-ab) for DARPA. John Varley, Lockheed's VP for hypersonic weapons, wouldn't provide details due to the program's high level of classification.
Dynetics will build the Common Glide Body for both the Army and Navy, which Lockheed will integrate into full-up weapons for the first Army battery by 2023.
Let a hundred hypersonic flowers bloom, Pentagon officials say, instead of a single cumbersome mega-program.
WASHINGTON: The Pentagon will ramp up research on hypersonic weapons with a stunning 136 percent increase in the 2019 budget request. Here’s the breakdown of the $257 million: DARPA wanted more money, director Steven Walker said bluntly, particularly to build up an R&D infrastructure currently half the size of China’s. But, he said, this budget […]
UPDATED with independent analysis from ICFI ARLINGTON: The race is on to build hypersonic weapons, missiles that blow through a target’s defenses at more than five times the speed of sound. Or should that be “the race to grow hypersonic weapons”? It turns out an unrelated cutting-edge technology, 3D printing, may be the key to making hypersonics work. […]