Beyond supersonic is hypersonic. And producing vehicles that can not only fly but do so robustly at that speed-4,000 miles per hour and faster-is the most critical challenge facing our warfighters, and therefore the U.S. industrial base. A key challenge in producing hypersonics vehicles is developing the materials that will enable maximum performance in the incredibly hot and unforgiving environments of Mach 5 and beyond-moving fast enough to make it from St. Louis to Honolulu in under an hour. It is critically important to identify, model and simulate, new and better materials and manufacturing processes. LIFT, the Department of Defense national manufacturing institute, is actively cultivating a national hypersonics-focused ecosystem from its Detroit-based applied research and development headquarters. This effort is focused on the intersection of materials science, manufacturing process and systems engineering. It is being coordinated at the intersection of industry, academic and government partners in developing hypersonics-centric technical programs to tackle specific challenges hindering U.S. manufacturers.
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