The US Air Force innovation arm AFWERX is holding a competition to develop low-cost cruise missile variants.
The Design Sprint and Challenge program leverages the expertise of tech communities to obtain high, subsonic speed weapons that can reach 500 nautical miles (926 kilometers/575 miles) and are obtainable at “$150,000 per unit in bulk orders.”
AFWERX’s Weapons Program Executive Office (PEO) is leading the effort in partnership with the Air Force Research Laboratory.
The project’s initial phase, focused on blueprints, was completed in September last year.
During this stage, teams were tasked with designing missile variants according to US Department of Defense requirements and ensuring the system’s availability for partner nations and allied forces.
Participants involved specialists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Labs, Kansas City National Security Campus, Sandia National Lab, Georgia Tech Research Institute, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, and the MITRE Corporation.
“AFWERX provided the guidelines of the meeting structure and logistics support to ensure a streamlined execution of our event; it made it really easy as an organizer for this government event to show up and know that everything logistically was taken care of,” Johns Hopkins Team Member Hartley Postlethwaite said.
“The support that was most interesting was the artist and thoughts that came from the AFWERX facilitator. By the end of each day, AFWERX was able to provide a graphic poster that summarized each day’s activities and decisions.”
Second Phase in 2024
The effort’s second phase is scheduled this year and will address critical parts of the cruise missile development, including the demonstration and fielding of the weapons, the fabrication of a system family, and the manufacturing test bed for future on-demand production.
“The Weapons PEO Challenge stands as a cornerstone in propelling weapon systems forward, marked by pivotal initiatives: integrating a flight-test-ready design by early 2024, maximizing industry input for superior technology evaluation, showcasing unparalleled speed and cost efficiency, delineating the trade space, and pinpointing design constraints,” AFWERX Challenge Team Leader Cyley Dymond stated.
