Lockheed Martin Awarded $928M to Develop Hypersonic Conventional Strike Weapon

Lockheed Martin has won $928 million contract for the hypersonic conventional strike weapon for the US Air Force.

This contract provides for the design, development, engineering, systems integration, test, logistics planning, and aircraft integration support of all the elements of a hypersonic, conventional, air-launched, stand-off weapon, US department of defense said in a statement Wednesday.

Hypersonic weapons are designed to travel at speeds five times of that of sound.  Apart from the above contract, the US is also conducting another program for the development of hypersonic weapon systems that could provide significant payoff for future US offensive strike operations, particularly as adversaries’ capabilities advance.

The Tactical Boost Glide (TBG) program is a joint Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) /US 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.