Boeing Co. will develop and test technologies for a hypersonic interceptor prototype for Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Glide Breaker program. The four-year effort will include dynamics analysis, wind tunnel testing and evaluation of aerodynamic jet interaction effects during test flights.
The $70.5 million contract from DARPA includes one unexercised option for the Glide Breaker Phase 2 program. Boeing will perform its work in Huntsville, California, Missouri, Maryland, New York, Massachusetts, Texas, Indiana and Minnesota.
“Hypersonic vehicles are among the most dangerous and rapidly evolving threats facing national security,” said Gil Griffin, executive director of Boeing Phantom Works Advanced Weapons. “We’re focusing on the technological understanding needed to further develop our nation’s counter-hypersonic capabilities and defend from future threats.”
The Glide Breaker is intended to inform the design and development of future hypersonic interceptors. “This phase of the Glide Breaker program 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,” Griffin said.
The work is expected to be complete in February 2027.
