Stratolaunch has been contracted by Leidos to provide Talon-A hypersonic vehicles for the US Navy Multiservice Advanced Capability Test Bed (MACH-TB) program.
Leidos partner Dynetics is the prime contractor on the program to enhance the country’s hypersonic ground and flight testing capability, leading to faster fielding.
Hypersonic Test Bed
The effort includes leveraging commercially available infrastructure and flight vehicles for the test bed.
It also calls for the development of an experimental glide body for data gathering and validation of hypersonic glide body component performance, enabling improved weapons development.
The establishment of a national hypersonic capability is the goal of the initiative, spawning a broad range of US military hypersonic programs.
Talon-A Hypersonic Test Vehicle
Stratolaunch’s Talon-A is a reusable autonomous long-range hypersonic test vehicle capable of Mach 6.
The test vehicle is ready for its first hypersonic flight later this year after clocking multiple captive tests since October 2022.
“Leidos is delighted to have Stratolaunch join the team that’s working to provide fast and affordable hypersonic flight test capabilities to the nation,” Leidos program manager for MACH-TB Andy Crocker said.
“Using air launch and the Talon-A reusable vehicle offers unique opportunities to advance the maturity of hypersonic technologies.”