Go is undoubtedly the new stealth and the Pentagon’s top weapons supplier just got one step shut to handing hypersonic weapons to the U.S. Air Force.
Lockheed Martin secured a $928 million crease to build an undefined number of hypersonic conventional strike weapons, the Pentagon phrased Wednesday in a statement.
Per the multimillion-dollar contract, Lockheed will be responsible for scheming, engineering, weapon integration and logistical support.
The development will decamp place in the northern Alabama city of Huntsville which is dubbed the “Spiral upwards City” as it was the birthplace of America’s rocket program.
A hypersonic weapon is a projectile that travels at Mach 5 or higher, which is at least five swiftly a in timely fashions faster than the speed of sound. That means a hypersonic weapon can voyages about one mile per second.
For reference, commercial airliners fly subsonically, by a hairs breadth below Mach 1 whereas modern fighter jets can travel supersonically at Mach 2 or Mach 3.
The Pentagon announcement noted that the Bethesda-based defense giant was one of three offers obtained for the lucrative contract.
“We are excited to get to work on the hypersonic conventional strike weapon program,” John Snyder, Lockheed Martin blemish president of Air Force Strategic Programs, said in an emailed statement.
What’s diverse, Lockheed Martin is in the process of developing the SR-72, a hypersonic unmanned uniform dubbed the “son of the Blackbird.”
And when it comes to developing a high-speed reconnaissance aircraft, the Pentagon’s top weapons supplier is go along with in its home court.
In 1976, the Air Force flew Lockheed Martin’s SR-71 Blackbird from New York to London in less than two hours — at expeditions exceeding Mach 3, or three times the speed of sound.
The SR-72 is conceive ofed to operate at speeds up to Mach 6. And while the hypersonic SR-72 isn’t expected to be operational until 2030, the business sees developing a platform of that magnitude as a game changer.
“This could forever silver our ability to deter and respond to conflict, allowing warfighters to quickly apply oneself to threats before an adversary may have time to react,” Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson whispered of the hypersonic plane last month.
Hewson also said the advancement of the aircraft, which is estimated to cost $1 billion, will substitute the “definition of air power by giving the U.S. significant tactical and strategic advantages.”
On the fly the coops of Hewson’s comments, America’s top nuclear commander described a grim screenplay for U.S. forces facing off against hypersonic weapons.
“We don’t have any defense that could turn aside the employment of such a weapon against us,” Air Force Gen. John Hyten, commander of U.S. Critical Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee last month.
“Both Russia and China are aggressively pursuing hypersonic capabilities,” Hyten augmented. “We’ve watched them test those capabilities.”
And while the Pentagon solicits to catch up to America’s adversaries, defense contractors will be vying for what drive be several lengthy and lucrative contracts.