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Written by John Harper
The Defense Department is reaching out to academia for help developing hypersonic weapons technology, announcing several new applied research awards on Thursday for capabilities in navigation systems, scrum jets, speed and altitude controls and aeroshells.
The Mach 5, a hypersonic missile designed to fly faster and a high-speed missile, is a major modernization priority for the Pentagon as it races to develop new military technology with China and Russia. DOD wants to refine and further develop various hypersonics components as it aims to begin operating such systems by 2023 and bring more platforms online over the next few years. He is trying to build a talent pipeline in academia and strengthen the future of hypersonics workforce.
Four groups of universities and their research partners have each received a one-year award of $500,000 for applied research to aid these efforts, the Pentagon said Thursday.
Texas A&M University, Pennsylvania State University, University of Michigan and Ohio State University – in collaboration with Sandia National Laboratories and The Boeing Company – have been tapped to develop navigation systems to maintain the stability of the feedback control system for hypersonic vehicles.
Researchers apply multiphysics modeling approaches to identify and characterize navigation sensors operating in disturbed environments. Combined developments will create a phase-limited information-fusion, learning, and estimation system (RIFLES), which will enhance operational capabilities through robust navigation and data integration,” according to a DoD press release.
The University of Virginia, the University of South Wales, Ohio State University and the University of Arizona — along with the Air Force Research Laboratory, FGC Plasma Solutions and Lockheed Martin — have been tasked with developing an upgrade to the scramjet system that officials hope will enable hypersonics. Vehicles to operate in a variety of flight conditions.
“Researchers investigate the parameters that enable nanosecond discharge to enhance and stabilize flames in the high Mach number range,” he said.
The University of Alabama in Huntsville and CFD Research Corporation have been selected to develop new concepts and technologies to enable hypersonic vehicles to reach the “correct speeds and altitudes” for various missions. Their work, according to the release, included an investigation to “develop a control system adapted to the propellant composition to control the moving grain with active burn rate control.”
Florida International University and the University of Rhode Island have teamed up with Raytheon Technologies Research Center to develop a solution to monitor the health and condition of hypersonic air shells.
“Researchers investigate the inverse relationship between the presence of mechanical defects in the air shell and the rapid heating caused by those defects,” he said in a release.
The research awards are being administered by the university’s Consortium for Applied Hypersonics and the Pentagon’s Joint Hypersonic Transfer Office.
The consortium includes itself as a “comprehensive, collaborative network of universities working with government, industry, national laboratories, federally funded research centers, and existing university-affiliated research centers” with the goal of “providing the innovation and manpower needed to advance modern hypersonic flight systems.” “In support of national defense.”
The Joint Hypersonic Transfer Office, under the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, was established in 2011. In 2020, he was tasked with accelerating technology and human resource development and facilitating the transition of new technology into operational capabilities.
Thursday’s announcement came the same day Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks toured Purdue University’s Hypersonics and Applied Research Facility to discuss the importance of such capabilities and the work the academy is doing to advance them.
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