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AFRL Mayhem concept
Kratos is developing a hypersonic drone, adding to a growing portfolio of high-speed vehicles, CEO Eric DeMarco told Aviation Week in a March 18 interview.
All further details of the project—including the design, performance and schedule—cannot yet be released, DeMarco said.
The mystery vehicle can be supported by the Hypersonic System Indiana Payload Integration Facility (IPIF) that the company broke ground on in Crane, Indiana, on March 18.
Asked if the IPIF would support only payloads for hypersonic glide vehicles powered by solid rocket motors, DeMarco said vehicles with air-breathing propulsion technologies also are possible.
DeMarco previously has hinted at interest by Kratos in turbine-based hypersonic propulsion. In a 2019 press release announcing the acquisition of Florida Turbine Technologies (now Kratos Turbine Technologies, or KTT), DeMarco included a cryptic statement.
“Beyond traditional turbojet and turbofan engines, we are also focused on developing advanced, affordable engines for a new class of hypersonic propulsion system,” DeMarco said.
DeMarco has never elaborated on that statement. However, as its name implies, KTT specializes in air-breathing, turbine-based propulsion systems, not the solid rocket motors that boost hypersonic glide vehicles to hypersonic speed.
Kratos already has built a hypersonic portfolio with a pair of hypersonic glide vehicles called Erinyes and Dark Fury. Both can be powered by Kratos’ new Zeus rocket, an offshoot from the company’s Oriole sounding rocket.
Hypersonic technology—and air-breathing propulsion in particular—remains mainly at the developmental stage in the U.S. industrial base, with the operational Lockheed Martin/Leidos Long Range Hypersonic Weapon for the U.S. Army being the sole exception.
Despite the advanced nature of the technology, Kratos remains committed to avoid crossing the “bleeding-edge” of capability in new products. The company prefers to work on fixed-price contracts, and the risk of overruns with inventing new technology are too high for Kratos, with its $1.1 billion of annual sales, to bear.
“Bleeding edge—something that’s never been done before—those are the types of fixed-price contracts that we tend to stay away from because it’s never been done before,” DeMarco said at the McAleese Defense Programs Conference outside Washington on March 18. “We don’t have the size or the scale like a Boeing to be able to absorb and get the thing done for an amount of money. That’s just crazy. We just can’t do it.”
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