Raytheon Company won a $63.3 million DARPA contract to further develop the Tactical Boost Glide hypersonic weapons program. The joint DARPA and U.S. Air Force effort includes a critical design review, a key step in fielding the technology.

«This latest contract adds to Raytheon’s growing number of hypersonic weapons programs», said Doctor Thomas Bussing, Raytheon Advanced Missile Systems vice president. «Raytheon is working closely with our customers to quickly field these advanced weapon systems and provide our nation’s military with the tools they need to stay ahead of the escalating threat».

Hypersonic weapons will enable the U.S. military to engage from longer ranges with shorter response times and enhanced effectiveness compared to current weapon systems.

Systems that operate at hypersonic speeds – five times the speed of sound (Mach 5) and beyond – offer the potential for military operations from longer ranges with shorter response times and enhanced effectiveness compared to current military systems. Such systems could provide significant payoff for future U.S. offensive strike operations, particularly as adversaries’ capabilities advance.

The Tactical Boost Glide (TBG) program is a joint DARPA/U.S. Air Force (USAF) effort that aims to develop and demonstrate technologies to enable future air-launched, tactical-range hypersonic boost glide systems. In a boost glide system, a rocket accelerates its payload to high speeds. The payload then separates from the rocket and glides unpowered to its destination.

The TBG program plans to focus on three primary objectives:

• Vehicle Feasibility – Vehicle concepts possessing the required aerodynamic and aerothermal performance, controllability and robustness for a wide operational envelope;
• Effectiveness – System attributes and subsystems required to be effective in relevant operational environments;
• Affordability – Approaches to reducing cost and increasing value for both the demonstration system and future operational systems.

TBG is a two-phase effort that plans to include ground and flight testing to mature critical technologies, and aims to demonstrate the system performance achievable through the integration of those technologies. The program is using a disciplined systems engineering approach to define demonstration system objectives and identify enabling technologies needed for future systems. The TBG program is exploiting the technical knowledge and lessons derived from development and flight testing of previous boost glide systems, including the Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 (HTV-2).