Boeing has been selected by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop and test the technology needed to intercept hypersonic missiles in the upper atmosphere as part of the agency's four-year Glide Breakthrough program.
If there is one constant in military technology, it is the arms race between offense and defense. Every time a new attack technique is invented, a defense technique is developed to defeat it, and vice versa.
The same is true for the emerging field of hypersonic missiles. Hypersonic missiles can travel five times the speed of sound and therefore have huge potential to revolutionize warfare. With such speeds, they can penetrate conventional air defense systems before being detected and outrun most anti-aircraft missiles except under the most favorable circumstances.
Because of this, DARPA and other agencies around the world are looking for ways to intercept hypersonic weapons. In this case, the Glide Destroyer program is tasked with developing technology to lock onto and intercept hypersonic missiles during their fragile glide phase, the phase in which certain types of hypersonic vehicles reach their top speeds by flying to high altitudes and then accelerating with the help of gravity.
Under the current contract, Boeing will perform computational fluid dynamics analysis and wind tunnel testing of the Glide Breaker prototype, as well as evaluate aerodynamic jet interaction effects during flight tests. This will be used to develop practical glide phase interceptors.
Hypersonic vehicles are one of the most dangerous and fastest-growing threats to national security, said Gil Griffin, executive director of Boeing's Phantom Advanced Weapons Company. "We are focused on further developing our nation's counter-hysonic capabilities and the technical understanding needed to defend against future threats. This phase of the Glider Destroyer program will determine how factors such as hypersonic airflow and launching jet thrusters to guide the vehicle affect system performance in representative digital environments at extreme speeds and altitudes." He added: "We are at the forefront of intercepting extremely fast objects in dynamic environments."