US hypersonic vehicle achieves Mach 5 in first test flight

With the US several years behind China and Russia when it comes to the development and deployment of hypersonic weapons – at least – the US sorely needs a win, and last week Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (Kratos) announced the successful test flight of its Erinyes hypersonic test vehicle.

Developed by the company’s Space & Missile Defense Systems Business Unit, the test vehicle reached Mach 5 in its first test flight. Erinyes is being developed under the auspices of the US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC).

According to a press release, the vehicle was launched at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) in Virginia.This successful inaugural flight of the Erinyes vehicle demonstrates a new and innovative platform capability for rapid hypersonic experimentation for the US Department of Defense (DoD).

The Hypersonic Test Bed-1 (HTB-1) exercise demonstrated hypersonic flight and collected data for multiple experiments to provide to test teams for design validation and evaluation of new technologies.

This announcement comes weeks after the MDA announced the first successful test of its hypersonic missile tracking satellites, launched in February of this year. The MDA did not mention the test’s target, but Kratos has now filled in on the missing piece of information.

“Hypersonic experimenters now have a robust and affordable path across the TRL [Technology Readiness Level]. The ability to demonstrate experimental technologies on a real hypersonic flight testbed, without adding risk to programs of record, is game-changing,” stated Dave Carter, President of Kratos’ Defense and Rocket Support Systems (DRSS) Division.

“Following this success, we will turn to preparing for our next test, incorporating a new set of experiments. I couldn’t be prouder of our team,” he added.

Kratos developed Erinyes in three years for under $15 million with a combination of internal investment and congressional funding. Josh Peterson, senior vice president for space and missile defense systems at Kratos, stated that the company built the system mainly in response to concerns within the DoD.

The concerns were that their existing hypersonic test infrastructure was overtaxed and not well-positioned to meet demand.

“The 100% successful flight of the Kratos Erinyes hypersonic vehicle with our MDA and Navy partners is representative of the power of Kratos’ approach to be first to market with leading technology systems and products, which accelerates development and delivery schedules, while significantly reducing cost,” Eric DeMarco, President and CEO of Kratos, said in a press release.

DeMarco went on to explain that Kratos is now better positioned to upset the market.

“Kratos’ Rocket and Hypersonic systems development programs are positioned to disrupt the market with affordable, relevant systems, and we expect Kratos’ hypersonic franchise, including Erinyes, Zeus, Oriole, and other systems, to be a key contributor to our expected future organic growth trajectory,” he added.

He also explained that the company is now looking to expand its defense business.

“Kratos is laser-focused on expanding the U.S. National Security Industrial Base, increasing competition, reducing cost, and delivering significant value to all Kratos stakeholders, including the MDA, U.S. Navy, and other Government customers. Kratos has served the U.S. hypersonic community for decades through novel system and vehicle flight testing,” he explained.

Going forward, the company is now eyeing its second flight for MDA, which is slated for later this year.