Europe’s Missile Manufacturers Join Forces On Hypersonic Glide Vehicle

An industry team made up of some of the biggest names in European missile development has secured funding to develop a hypersonic glide vehicle demonstrator to help build a defense against such high-speed weapons.

 

The European Defense Fund (EDF) is providing €68 million for the Countering Hypersonic Glide Vehicle (CHGV) project, which aims to collect “signatures and kinematic data” to both validate HGV simulation models and “gain an accurate understanding of the technology to enable counter-HGV systems to successfully detect and engage the threat,” EDF documentation published in December states. The efforts would likely support the pan-European Twister—for Timely Warning and Interception with Space-based Theater surveillance—project to develop a defense system capable of downing hypersonic missile threats.

 

Two industry teams are already pursuing the development of a hypersonic interceptor that would equip Twister through the EDF-funded European Hypersonic Defense Interceptor (HYDEF) and Hypersonic Defense Interceptor System (HYDIS2) research and technology projects.

 

The CHGV project originally formed part of the EDF’s call for proposals in 2024, but the EU decided not to compete the project. Instead, it was awarded to a large industrial team led by MBDA Germany which includes representation from much of Europe’s missile industry, including Avio, Diehl, Kongsberg, Hensoldt, Indra, MBDA Italy, Spanish Missile Systems and Thales as well as several research centers. Funding is now being provided through the 2026 EDF Call for Proposals.

 

The project calls for the partners to build, test and fly a basic full-scale HGV demonstrator, which should prove to have stable flight and structural endurance for a “realistic trajectory with speed in the hypersonic regime.”

 

The EDF documents state that the HGV should be capable of transmitting real-time data and be launched at an altitude of between 30 km (18 mi.) and 80 km and achieve speeds between Mach 8 and Mach 12. The flight should be monitored by a range of sensors operating in multiple wavelengths.

 

Furthermore, the EU is also raising the secrecy curtain around the project, with information generated during the implementation of the proposals selected for EU funding to be classified.

 

Notably, French industry is not involved in the project, perhaps because Paris has already engaged in its own HGV experiments including the V-MAX trial performed from Biscarrosse in June 2023 using a U.S.-made sounding rocket.

 

France now has access to a domestic sounding rocket system, SyLEx, that will enable more hypersonic testing to take place soon.