Boeing to lead on hypersonic interceptor technologies for DARPA

Boeing will develop and test technologies for a hypersonic interceptor prototype for DARPA’s Glide Breaker programme as part of a four-year effort. This will include performing computational fluid dynamics analysis, wind-tunnel testing and evaluation of aerodynamic jet interaction effects during flight tests.

Gil Griffin, executive director of Boeing Phantom Works Advanced Weapons, said: “Hypersonic vehicles are among the most dangerous and rapidly evolving threats facing national security. We are focusing on the technological understanding needed to further develop our nation’s counter-hypersonic capabilities and defend from future threats.”

Glide Breaker is intended to inform the design and development of future hypersonic interceptors, which could destroy a threat traveling at least five-times the speed of sound in the upper atmosphere during what is known as the “glide phase” of flight. The Boeing-led development and testing will provide the foundation for future operational glide-phase interceptors capable of defending against these sophisticated and evolving hypersonic threats.

Mr Griffin said: “This phase of the Glide Breaker programme will determine how factors 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 are operating on the cutting edge of what is possible in terms of intercepting an extremely fast object in an incredibly dynamic environment.”