Final hypersonic missile contract awards imminent

摘要

The U.S. Army is expected this month to award the final contracts related to the development of its mobile, ground-launched hypersonic missile. The company will be expected to develop a launching system for the hypersonic missile in co-development across the services, Lt. Gen. L. Neil Thurgood, the Army's Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office director, said Aug. 7 at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium. While the missile is under joint development, the Army needs a special launcher to make it road-mobile. The contract will encompass the design and integration of a vertical launcher onto a trailer, Thurgood said. Additionally, the RCCTO is preparing to award a contract, along the same time frame, to a vendor to produce the glide body for the hypersonic missile, Thurgood said. The Navy will own the design of the glide body, but the Army will own its production, he added. "We have a company that we are in the final process of negotiating an [other transaction authority contract]," Thurgood said. An OTA is a contract that allows for rapid prototyping by bypassing the usual red tape.