Boeing wins contract for hypersonic interception
The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) has selected Boeing to move into the second phase of the “Glide Breaker” hypersonic missile interceptor program.
The contract, worth $70.6 million, comes more than a year after the agency requested proposals for technology to defend against hypersonic threats.
After the development of a control system that enables the interception of hypersonic targets, the second phase of the program will focus on conducting flight tests to evaluate the effects of the jet's interaction on a destruction vehicle.
Phase II “will also develop the technical understanding of jet interactions necessary to enable the design of propulsion control systems for a future operational glide-phase interceptor vehicle,” according to program manager Major Nathan Greiner.
The majority of the contract work will be performed in Alabama, California and Missouri and is expected to be completed by February 2027.
The Glide Breaker program
Launched in 2018, the Glide Breaker program aims to counter high-speed enemy weapons flying in the upper atmosphere.
It will use an intercept vehicle to directly shoot down incoming weapons traveling at speeds of at least Mach 5.
But unlike other anti-missile systems, the Glide Breaker interceptor will take on the more arduous task of hitting targets during the glide phase – the longest flight phase between launch and the “terminal” phase. Given the speed and maneuverability of hypersonic weapons, DARPA is paying close attention to the speed, altitude, jet interactions and other dynamics of shooting down a hypersonic weapon.
“The goal of the Glide Breaker program is to advance the United States' ability to defend against supersonic threats and the entire class of hypersonic threats,” DARPA said in 2018, at the time the program launched.
The threat of Russian and Chinese hypersonic weapons is the most strategically relevant now for the USA which is continuously postponing the launch of its missiles with similar performance. In contrast, the Russian Zyrcon , for example, is already in service, and this requires a prompt response from the USA.
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The article Boeing wins contract for hypersonic interception comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/boeing-vince-lappalto-per-lintercettazione-ipersonica/ on Tue, 12 Sep 2023 07:00:10 +0000.