US Air Force plans hypersonic strike weapon contract award for late 2017

[F-22Raptor]

The Air Force wants to start work this year to put a hypersonic, conventional strike weapon on fighter and bomber aircraft, according to a July 21 Federal Business Opportunities notice. The service plans to award a contract to one of five companies in the first quarter of fiscal year 2018.

Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and Orbital ATK are the only companies that could meet the Air Force's needs in a reasonable amount of time, the FBO notice states. The service asks for a hypersonic, GPS- and inertially guided strike capability to fire against high-value fixed and moving targets in denied environments. Each weapon would use an undisclosed government-issued warhead.

The development and integration contract will span all work through the engineering and manufacturing development phase, according to FBO. A June 29 FBO post noted the weapon would be flown on existing aircraft and that companies need to design and analyze the new system for rapid fielding.

The Air Force did not respond to questions about the hypersonic strike effort by press time (July 24).

https://insidedefense.com/insider/a...n-contract-award-late-2017?platform=hootsuite

Just a matter of time now until the US begins fielding hypersonic weapons.

 

[F-22Raptor]

I think this is pretty significant. It tells me US hypersonic strike efforts are moving out of the Science and Technology phase, and into a program of record. It also states the Air Force wants this weapon rapidly fielded. My guess is this weapon will begin to be fielded 5-10 years from now.