Jane Edwards
Raytheon, an RTX business, and Northrop Grumman will continue to build and conduct additional flight tests of Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept systems powered by scramjet engines under a follow-on contract with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
The Raytheon-Northrop team will incorporate production enhancements into the existing HAWC design and validate system capabilities through additional test flights through the DARPA contract, RTX said Monday.
Colin Whelan, president of advanced technology for Raytheon, said continuing on the HAWC program will help the company expand its hypersonic flight knowledge and bring critical capabilities to warfighters.
“The HAWC follow-on contract serves as an engine pathfinder program in our new production-ready Hypersonics Capability Center in Elkton, Maryland,” said Dan Olson, general manager and vice president of weapons systems at Northrop.
In 2019, Northrop agreed to integrate its scramjet combustors with Raytheon’s air-breathing hypersonic weapons.
In September 2022, the U.S. Air Force selected the industry team to build a scramjet-powered, air-breathing munition, dubbed Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile.
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