The Pentagon’s office of industrial base policy has awarded contracts to three companies to strengthen the hypersonic and strategic systems’ supply chain in the United States.
On Apr. 28, DoD said that it awarded General Electric [GE] a nearly $8 million, 39-month contract to build high- and ultra-high temperature composites, modernize capital equipment, and increase aeroshell production at the GE Advanced Materials Center in Newark, Del.
The Pentagon also said that it has awarded Carbon-Carbon Advanced Technologies a more than $7.5 million, 38-month contract for the company’s Arlington, Texas plant to build “large complex assemblies made of carbon-carbon (C-C), a class of advanced composite material that is critical for various defense and aerospace applications.”
“This effort will support increased production rates for carbon-carbon nose tips and aeroshell assemblies for ongoing DoD-sponsored pilot production programs,” the Pentagon said.
In addition, Northrop Grumman [NOC] received a more than $9 million contract to expand production capacity for high- and ultra-high temperature composites for hypersonic and strategic systems’ components through the acquisition of automated preform manufacuturing equipment and high temperature furnaces at the company’s Elkton, Md. plant.
Northrop Grumman CEO Kathy Warden referenced the company’s Elkton, Md. presence in an Apr. 27 earnings call.
Warden said that Northrop Grumman’s new hypersonic Center of Excellence in Elkton is to open this summer.
“This new production facility is designed to provide full lifecycle production for hypersonic weapons, from design and development to production and integration using the latest digital engineering and smart manufacturing technologies,” she said.
Northrop Grumman’s Elkton plant supports the U.S. Air Force hypersonic attack cruise missile (HACM), Warden said. Raytheon Technologies [RTX] and Northrop Grumman are teamed on HACM. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall has said that air-breathing hypersonic weapons, such as HACM, using scramjet engines, have shown more promise than hypersonic boost glide designs.
“The Department of Defense continues to deliver on the president’s strategic objectives of supporting industrial sectors critical to our nation’s national security needs and strategic interests,” Laura Taylor-Kale, assistant secretary of defense for industrial base policy, said in an Apr. 28 DoD statement. “The Biden Administration has identified hypersonics technology as a critical need for ensuring American national security. The Office of Industrial Base Policy – through the MCEIP team, is pleased to act on behalf of the nation to accelerate the advancement of hypersonics technology in the United States.”
While the DoD statement says that Biden’s Executive Order 14017 on Feb. 24, 2021 “recognized the need to support and advance the development of the domestic hypersonics industrial base,” that executive order contains no mention of hypersonics.
Last month, the Senate confirmed Taylor-Kale as the first assistant secretary of defense for industrial base policy. Taylor-Kale has served as a foreign service officer, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and as the Obama administration’s deputy assistant secretary of commerce for manufacturing in the International Trade Administration between 2014 and 2017, according to her DoD biography.