General Atomics has received a $41.8 million deal from the Army to support future hypersonic weapon system flight tests scheduled to begin in 2021.
The deal, officially announced Monday evening, covers manufacturing and production support for tests to further the development of the Common Hypersonic Glide Body as part of the Army’s Long Range Hypersonic Weapon and Navy’s Intermediate Range Conventional Prompt Strike (IRCPS) programs.
“As new threats continue to emerge, advancing the development and flight testing of hypersonic vehicle prototypes has become an urgent priority,” Scott Forney, president of General Atomics-Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS), said in a statement. “Over the past 13 years, we have worked closely with the Army and Sandia National Laboratories to design, manufacture and test hypersonic glide body components and technologies. We look forward to leveraging that expertise as this critical capability transitions out of the lab and into a production-ready asset to support the warfighter.”
GA-EMS was the only company to submit a bid for the work, which is expected to be completed in March 2021.
The latest deal for GA-EMS follows previous work performed under a contract with Army Space and Missile Defense Command for the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon-Technology Demonstration program.
The company is tasked with overseeing support efforts for the Common Hypersonic Glide Body and flight test vehicles as the systems move toward ground and flight tests.
In late August, the Army selected Lockheed Martin [LMT] to develop and integrate a Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon prototype and also awarded Dynetics a contract to build the Common Hypersonic Glide Body systems (Defense Daily, Aug. 30).
The Army has said it plans to field a “residual combat capability” for a hypersonic weapon in FY ’23.