Boeing Secures Contract to Test DARPA Glide Breaker Hypersonic Interceptor

The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency has selected Boeing to develop and test technologies for its Glide Breaker hypersonic missile interceptor program, the company announced on Monday. Defense Post reports that the majority of Boeing’s work will be carried out in Alabama, California and Missouri, with completion expected by February 2027.

Under the contract, which is valued at $70.6 million, Boeing’s tasks include wind tunnel testing and computational fluid dynamics analysis during flight tests of a Glide Breaker prototype.

The tests will establish the foundation for the design and future development of hypersonic interceptors capable of destroying a threat at its glide phase moving in the upper atmosphere at least five times the speed of sound, Boeing said.

According to Gil Griffin, executive director of Boeing Phantom Works Advanced Weapons, the company is focusing on counter-hypersonic development, as hypersonic vehicles are “rapidly evolving threats facing national security”.

DARPA launched the four-year Glide Breaker program in 2018 and sought proposals for its testing in April 2022, according to a separate Defense Post report.