Five Hypersonic Prototype Platform Ideas Advance Forward to Feasibility Studies

The Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division announced that the Joint Hypersonics Transition Office has selected the five winners of its Hyper-AMPD! prize challenge Phase I seeking new concepts for the speedy development and flight testing of hypersonic models for rapid integration into existing Department of Defense platforms. 

The winners, invited to advance to the challenge’s Phase II on creating a feasibility study for their submitted concepts, are Aerojet Rocketdyne, Castelion, GoHypersonic, Northrop Grumman and Specter Aerospace. The JHTO wants them to submit creative and cost-effective proposals ready for development and testing within 24 months, NSWC Crane said Friday.

One of the challenge’s Phase I winners, Northrop Grumman, broke ground in July 2021 for the construction of a hypersonic center of excellence in Elkton, Maryland, with completion expected in 2023.

The challenge’s Phase I, which drew 49 white papers, provides a total prize of $500,000, with each winner receiving up to $100,000. Two winners will be chosen for Phase II, which has an award of up to $250,000 for each of the top two hypersonic feasibility studies.

Sarah Armstrong, JHTO’s systems engineering field activity director at NSWC Crane, expressed her excitement at the result of the challenge, noting that the project has generated “so many novel ideas” and created new partnerships in the hypersonic community.

In October 2022, NSWC Crane awarded Leidos subsidiary Dynetics a Multiservice Advanced Capability Hypersonics Testbed contract to demonstrate cost-effective methods for prototyping launch vehicles for hypersonic payloads to inform DOD capability validation initiatives. In the same month, the DOD also awarded a three-year, $4.5 million applied research contract on hypersonic technology to the University of Virginia.