Raytheon Co. and Northrop Grumman have signed a teaming agreement to integrate Northrop Grumman’s scramjet engines on Raytheon’s air-breathing hypersonic weapons. The agreement helps speed the development of next-generation tactical missile systems for the armed forces. The scramjet engines forcibly compress incoming air into the combustion area of the engine to enable sustained vehicle flight at hypersonic speeds. For missile systems, the increased speeds result in reduced flight times and increased survivability in hostile environments.
“The Raytheon/Northrop Grumman team is quickly developing air-breathing hypersonic weapons to keep our nation ahead of the threat,” said Dr. Thomas Bussing, vice president of Raytheon’s Advanced Missile Systems. “This agreement combines Raytheon’s decades of tactical missile expertise with Northrop Grumman’s extensive scramjet engine development experience to produce the best possible weapons.” The teamwork is part of a hypersonic air-breathing weapon concept (HAWC) program valued at $200 million with the goal to deliver an advanced cruise missile for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the U.S. Air Force.
“This teaming agreement extends our strong partnership with Raytheon on this critical technology capability,” said Mike Kahn, vice president and general manager of Northrop Grumman’s Defense Systems. “Our deep heritage in propulsion, fuzes, and warheads will help accelerate readiness of tomorrow’s missiles to meet range, survivability, safety, and lethality requirements…Together with Raytheon, we intend to make great strides toward improving our nation’s high-speed weapon systems, which are critical to enhancing our warfighters’ capabilities for greater standoff and quicker time to target.”
