The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has announced the successful execution of a key flight test for the Multi-Service Advanced Capability Hypersonics Test Bed (MACH-TB), conducted in November 2024.
A hypersonic weapon system can travel at speeds that are at least five times the speed of sound.
The test was carried out by the DoD’s Test Resource Management Center (TRMC) in collaboration with the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC).
This marks a significant milestone in the U.S. military’s ongoing efforts to advance hypersonic technologies.
The MACH-TB program is designed to accelerate the development and testing of hypersonic systems, which are expected to provide significant enhancements to U.S. military capabilities.
The test is part of a broader initiative to develop high-speed, maneuverable vehicles that can operate at speeds greater than Mach 5—five times the speed of sound.
Such technologies, which allow for non-parabolic trajectories and maneuverability through the atmosphere, are considered critical to maintaining a strategic advantage in modern warfare.
According to George Rumford, Director of the Test Resource Management Center, the use of commercial launch services played a key role in the success of the test.
“Leveraging commercial launch services allows our nation to affordably test components early and frequently, accelerating hypersonic development,” he said.
The MACH-TB program’s testing involves hypersonic glide vehicles, which must endure extreme aerodynamic heat loads and other stresses associated with high-speed flight.
These vehicles are designed to provide valuable data on the performance and feasibility of hypersonic technologies for integration into future military systems.
The test in November follows a successful suborbital launch of the MACH-TB testbed vehicle in June 2023, marking significant progress toward the rapid deployment of hypersonic capabilities.
The DoD’s efforts in this area are driven by the urgent need to keep pace with adversaries developing similar technologies.
The race to develop hypersonic weapons has gained momentum in recent years, with countries like China and Russia also advancing their own hypersonic capabilities.
A Russian attack on a military industrial facility in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Nov. 21 marked the first use of a powerful new weapon -– a hypersonic ballistic missile with multiple warheads
Within hours of the Nov. 21 attack on the military facility, Russian President Vladimir Putin took the rare step of speaking on national TV to boast about the new, hypersonic missile.
Putin warned the West that it could be used against Ukraine’s NATO allies who allowed Kyiv to use their longer-range missiles to strike inside Russia.
Hypersonic weapons are one of the DoD’s highest priorities.
“Hypersonic weapons, capable of flying at speeds greater than five times the speed of sound (Mach 5), are highly maneuverable and operate at varying altitudes,” said a Navy press release. “The DoD is working in collaboration with industry, government national laboratories, and academia to field hypersonic warfighting capability in the early to mid-2020s.”
In October of 2020, the DoD established its Joint Hypersonics Transition Office (JHTO) Systems Engineering Field Activity at NSWC Crane. Through this partnership, the growing suite of government, industry, and academia associated with NSWC Crane can be leveraged to further hypersonics technology. Academic partners include Indiana’s three Tier 1 research universities: Indiana University, Notre Dame University, and Purdue University.
As part of this push, the DoD is working with a broad coalition of innovators, including non-traditional defense contractors, to enhance the nation’s technical capabilities.
The MACH-TB program is a collaboration between the DoD, national laboratories, academic institutions, and industry partners.
It also benefits from the expertise of the Strategic and Spectrum Missions Advanced Resilient Trusted Systems (S²MARTS) initiative, which facilitates rapid prototyping and technology development through partnerships with commercial enterprises.
Notably, eight organizations supporting MACH-TB development are non-traditional, expanding the reach of the defense sector and bringing innovations to the forefront.
The collective power of American innovators in the hypersonic race cannot be underestimated, according to officials who say the Pentagon eliminated barriers to entry and expanded its reach to the nation’s premier commercial innovators, introducing groundbreaking technologies into the hypersonic development program.
The success of the MACH-TB flight test is an important step toward ensuring the U.S. military maintains its technological superiority in the growing field of hypersonics. The ongoing development and testing of these advanced systems will play a pivotal role in the U.S. strategy to retain an edge in national security and defense technology.
Dynetics support the MACH-TB project, a contractor awarded the program in September 2022, along with a consortium of 12 subcontractors. The program’s focus is to refine the experimental glide body that will undergo further testing to assess hypersonic capabilities.
As the hypersonic arms race continues, the U.S. Department of Defense remains committed to accelerating its technological development to ensure its leadership in this critical field.