Stratolaunch to Provide Hypersonic Testbeds for Navy’s MACH-TB Program

Leidos has awarded Stratolaunch a contract to deliver hypersonic flights and optional payloads in support of the U.S. Navy’s Multiservice Advanced Capability Test Bed program.

Stratolaunch will provide five Talon-A hypersonic vehicles, which will serve as a testing platform under the MACH-TB program. Talon-A is an autonomous and reusable solution that would allow the Navy to test various payloads at speeds beyond Mach 5 and at different altitudes.

The contract is funded by the Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division’s Strategic and Spectrum Missions Advanced Resilient Trusted Systems other transaction agreement, Leidos said.

The Leidos award is not the first time Stratolaunch has been involved in the U.S. military’s hypersonics testing.

In October, the company received an Air Force Research Laboratory contract to demonstrate the Talon-A 3 for the first time. According to Stratolaunch, the Talon-A would enable rapid and repetitive hypersonic testing while reducing development costs and risks.

Stratolaunch won a spot on the Navy’s MACH-TB program in 2022.

Meanwhile, Leidos, through its Dynetics subsidiary, has been working on MACH-TB since October 2022. The company concluded the first MACH-TB launch test in July.