Leidos has added the University of Michigan (UM) as partner to assist on its Mayhem hypersonic missile program.
Students from the UM Aerospace Engineering program will gain experience in the program through the institution’s Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) lab.
Their role will be to assemble pieces of the MBSE environment, to be deployed by Leidos in the digital engineering ecosystem for the Mayhem team.
“The University of Michigan will be a critical component to the Mayhem strategy,” operations manager for the Leidos Innovation Center Artie Mabbett said.
“The students will gain firsthand experience experimenting with [Digital Engineering]/MBSE tools aiding in development of the virtual ecosystem that will ultimately be transitioned to a Leidos environment for implementation on the Mayhem program.”
Mayhem Hypersonic Missile Program
The US Air Force Research Laboratory awarded Leidos a $334-million, 51-month air-breathing hypersonic missile contract in December.
The agreement calls for the firm to design a large hypersonic platform with increased range and payload over current systems.
The system will be integrated with a scramjet engine that will propel it over long distances at greater than five times the speed of sound.
The air-breathing missile will also be employed for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance.
“To deliver the next generation of air-breathing hypersonic systems, we’ll leverage our years of investment, knowledge, and success in the hypersonic field,” Leidos president Steve Cook said at the time.
“Our team is prepared to undertake this vital mission for our nation.
The US Department of Defense stated that the system will feature a standardized payload interface that enables continuing technological advancements.
The air force also suggested that the next-generation platform could be reusable.
