President Vladimir Putin described the Kinzhal as the “most important” of the six modern weapon systems he revealed in a Kremlin speech on March 1, 2018.
The three contracts come less than two months after a presidential directive applied Defense Production Act Title III authorities for hypersonic programs.
MBDA has secured a lead role in the EATMI project to develop an air defense weapon capable of intercepting current and emerging post-2030 missile threats.
The HASTE uses the same Rutherford engines as Rocket Lab's Electron, but modifies the third stage to carry larger payloads and for suborbital deployment.
Spending over a 4-year period between fiscal '24-'27 on development and procurement across all five hypersonic weapon programs will total nearly $11.9 billion.
The awards come nearly seven months after the U.S. Air Force selected Raytheon for the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM) operational prototyping program.
The budget documents offer the first glimpse of the procurement profile for the boost-glide missile that is common with the Army's Long Range Hypersonic Weapon.
Japan’s hypersonic missile program has managed to attain “net-positive thrust” for its scramjet engine, which will power its future hypersonic missile.
MBDA is to explore other avenues in pursuit of its development of a missile interceptor capable of dealing with hypersonic targets, CEO Eric Beranger says.
