Boeing [BA] won a $70.5 million contract to develop and test technologies for the second phase of the Defense Advanced Research projects Agency’s (DARPA) counter-hypersonic missile interceptor program, Glide Breaker.
The company said under this contract it will perform computational fluid dynamics analysis, wind tunnel testing and evaluation of aerodynamic jet interaction effects during flight tests of a prototype interceptor.
The DoD contract announcement said this award includes one unexercised option and work is expected to be completed in four years, in February 2027.
The announcement said this was a competitive acquisition, but did not disclose if there were other offerors.
DARPA is working on Glide Breaker to advance the overall military capability to counter hypersonic missile threats. The program’s Phase 1 focused on developing and demonstrating a divert and attitude control system (DACS) that could allow an interceptor’s kill vehicle maneuver to intercept hypersonic targets during their glide phase.
DARPA awarded Phase 1 contracts to Aerojet Rocketdyne and Northrop Grumman [NOC].
Last year, DARPA announced it was proceeding to Phase 2 to focus on “focus on quantifying aerodynamic jet interaction effects that result from DACS plumes and hypersonic air flows around an interceptor kill vehicle.”
In April 2022 DARPA released a presolicitation notice about Phase 2, specifically that it sought proposals to conduct wind tunnel and flight testing to collect data on the jet interaction effects. It noted the results of Phase 2 would be used to inform a future program of record.
“The results of this phase are intended to inform designs and model development to enable acquisition of an interceptor utilizing a divert-and-attitude-control-system-propelled kill vehicle in a future program of record,” the notice said.
“We’re focusing on the technological understanding needed to further develop our nation’s counter-hypersonic capabilities and defend from future threats,” Gil Griffin, executive director of Boeing Phantom Works Advanced Weapons division, said in a statement.
He added that this phase of the program will determine how things like hypersonic airflow and firing jet thrusters to guide the vehicle “affect system performance at extreme speed and altitude in a representative digital environment. We’re operating on the cutting edge of what’s possible in terms of intercepting an extremely fast object in an incredibly dynamic environment.”
DARPA requested $29 million for the Glide Breaker program in the fiscal year 2024 budget request, part of a total $190.6 million for hypersonic missile defense in FY ‘24. Previously, it sought $225.5 million for hypersonic defense in the FY ‘23 budget request while Congress ultimately appropriated $510 million for this year.
Boeing is not one of the competitors in the Missile Defense Agency’s (MDA) ongoing near-term Glide Phase Interceptor (GPI) program.
In 2021, MDA awarded RTX [RTX], Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin [LMT] contracts to develop and refine their GPI concepts (Defense Daily, Nov. 22, 2021).
Then, last year, MDA downselected to RTX and Northrop Grumman to continue work refining their concepts (Defense Daily, June 24, 2022).
Former MDA Director Vice Adm. Jon Hill told congressional panels earlier this year that while the current mid-2030s deployment is too late, with additional funding they may be able to pull that up into the early 2030s.
In August, Executive Director at the Missile Defense Agency, Laura DeSimone, said the GPI development work and timeframe is being “throttled” due to all the new technologies that are being established and proven, but they have already proceeded from material solution to technology development work (Defense Daily, Aug. 22).
Prototype GPI interceptors are set to fit into the current Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System and be fired by standard vertical launch system cells on Navy destroyers before later being deployed at land bases.