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Raytheon wins $985M contract to develop hypersonic missiles
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force on Thursday awarded a $985 million contract to Raytheon Technologies to develop and demonstrate scramjet-powered hypersonic cruise missiles .
The contract starts to move the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile, or HACM, program out of the prototyping phase and into becoming an operational weapon that could be used in combat. It also cuts the number of companies vying to make the weapon from three to one.
Under the deal, the HACM program will take Raytheon’s prototype design and prepare it to be integrated into a fighter aircraft that could then be used in combat, the Air Force said in a release Thursday. Raytheon will also deliver two HACMs, the release said.
The Air Force said HACM will be an air-launched standoff weapon that can hit high-value targets in contested environments and could be fired from beyond the reach of enemy air defenses. The service hopes to have a HACM weapon that could be used in combat by fiscal 2027.
Hypersonic weapons such as the HACM can fly multiple times the speed of sound and can maneuver mid-flight, making them hard for enemies to track and shoot down.
In a future war against an adversary with advanced air defenses, such as China, the weapon could be used to strike valuable targets well within those defenses and otherwise out of reach. A fighter armed with such a weapon could fly to the edge of where the adversary’s defenses could reach and then fire the weapon. Once the HACM’s scramjet pushes the aircraft to about Mach 5, it could then outrun and evade air defenses on its way to the target, without putting the fighter pilot at risk.
“HACM is a powerful example of developing and integrating combat capabilities alongside our partners from the beginning,” Chief of Staff Gen. CQ Brown said in the release. “HACM will provide our commanders with tactical flexibility to employ fighters to hold high-value, time-sensitive targets at risk, while maintaining bombers for other strategic targets.”
The contract marks the end of more than a year of competition between major defense contractors to prove their concept will work.
The Air Force and Australia teamed up in 2020 to develop air-breathing hypersonic cruise missile prototypes under a bilateral project arrangement called the Southern Cross Integrated Flight Research Experiment, or SCIFiRE.
In June 2021, the Air Force awarded 15-month SCIFiRE contracts to Raytheon, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin to finish their preliminary designs for a hypersonic cruise missile.
The Air Force said in Thursday’s release the U.S. and Australia will keep collaborating on HACM’s design and development under the SCIFiRE agreement.
Part of this continued collaboration will include using Australia’s test infrastructure for HACM’s first all-up-round flight tests.
A lack of sufficient infrastructure to test hypersonics has been a major hindrance for developing these weapons in the United States, industry officials told Pentagon leaders earlier this year. Lawmakers and DoD officials have sought to expand American testing capabilities to fix this.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.
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Air Force selects Raytheon in $985M hypersonic cruise missile contract
If hacm development continues to progress, the weapon could become the first scramjet-powered, hypersonic air-launched cruise missile to be introduced into the air force's inventory..
US Aerospace manufacturer Raytheon’s hospitality chalet at the Farnborough Airshow. (Photo by In Pictures Ltd./Corbis via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — Raytheon beat out fellow defense giants Boeing and Lockheed Martin to win the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM) contract, worth $985 million, the Air Force announced today.
According to the contract announcement , the next phase of the program includes “HACM weapon system design, development and initial delivery through the performance of model-based critical design review, qualification, integration, manufacturing and testing.”
If HACM development continues to progress, the weapon could become the first scramjet-powered, air-launched hypersonic missile to be introduced into the Air Force’s inventory as early as 2027, the service said in a news release.
In 2020, the Royal Australian Air Force became involved in the development of the missile through the Southern Cross Integrated Flight Research Experiment (SCIFiRE) initiative, and could offer up Australian test infrastructure for the initial all-up-round flight tests, the Air Force said.
“HACM is a powerful example of developing and integrating combat capabilities alongside our partners from the beginning,” said Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. CQ Brown. “ HACM will provide our commanders with tactical flexibility to employ fighters to hold high-value, time-sensitive targets at risk while maintaining bombers for other strategic targets.”
Boeing, Lockheed and Raytheon won initial HACM design contracts in June 2021. Brig. Gen. Heath Collins, then the Air Force’s program executive officer for weapons, told Breaking Defense in May that the competitors were expected to finish preliminary design reviews before the end of September, which would allow the service to downselect to a single vendor before the start of the new fiscal year on Oct. 1.
The Air Force has shown a strong interest in the HACM program, requesting $316.8 million in its fiscal 2023 budget submission — an increase of almost $257 million more than FY22.
According to the budget, the HACM vendor will progress to the critical design review stage in FY23, where it will continue “the assembly, integration and test of subsystems for qualification testing, as well as prototype systems for system qualification, ground test and flight testing.”
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The Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM) is a scramjet-powered hypersonic air-launched cruise missile project, the successor of the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) and the SCIFiRE hypersonic programs.
The Air Force awarded Raytheon Missiles and Defense a $985,348,124 contract to develop and demonstrate Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile prototypes, underscoring the U.S. Air Force’s focus on increasing interoperability with allies and partners to stay ahead of strategic competitors.
The Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile is an air-breathing, scramjet powered munition. Scramjet engines use high vehicle speed to forcibly compress incoming air before combustion, which enables sustained flight at hypersonic speeds – Mach 5 or greater.
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force on Thursday awarded a $985 million contract to Raytheon Technologies to develop and demonstrate scramjet-powered hypersonic cruise missiles.
The Air Force has awarded Raytheon Missiles & Defense a $985.3 million cost-plus-fixed fee contract to develop and build the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile, or HACM, an air-breathing cruise missile intended to launched from fighter-sized aircraft.
The Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile is an air-breathing, scramjet powered munition. Scramjet engines use high vehicle speed to forcibly compress incoming air before combustion, which enables sustained flight at hypersonic speeds – Mach 5 or greater.
Raytheon designed HACM, which leverages Northrop Grumman scramjet propulsion, to travel more than five times the speed of sound and cover vast distances in minutes. The Air Force has said it plans for the missile to be operational by fiscal year 2027.
The Pentagon on Thursday said it awarded Raytheon Technologies a $985 million dollar contract to develop prototypes for a hypersonic attack cruise missile, putting the firm well ahead of...
WASHINGTON — Raytheon beat out fellow defense giants Boeing and Lockheed Martin to win the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM) contract, worth $985 million, the Air Force announced today.
The airframe and engine designs are closely aligned to the U.S. Air Force's Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM) which will directly benefit from the continued advancements.