Weapons developers Raytheon and Northrop Grumman Corp. NOC have been awarded a U.S. Defense Department contract to continue testing and building out ultra-high-speed hypersonic missile systems, executives at both companies said on Monday. The follow-on contract was awarded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, to lower risk for those systems and incorporate manufacturing improvements into their design. Under the agreement, researchers, led by Raytheon, will build and fly those devices, known as Hypersonic “Air-breathing” Weapon Concept — or HAWC — flight vehicles, which harness the open air to accelerate to speeds far beyond the speed of sound. “We applied learnings from each successful HAWC flight test to ensure that it is the most sophisticated system of its kind,” said Colin Whelan, president of advanced technology for Raytheon, which last month rebranded as RTX RTX. “Continuing this important program will expand our knowledge of hypersonic flight and allow us to deliver the critical capability our warfighters need.” The partnership between the two began in 2013. In 2019, they signed an agreement to produce and integrate Northrop Grumman’s scramjet engines into Raytheon’s air-breathing hypersonic weapons. Shares of both companies were unchanged after hours.
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