Kratos Defense & Security Solutions has secured a $1.45 billion contract from the Department of Defense to advance testing for hypersonic technology. The company said Monday the five-year deal supports the Pentagon’s Multi-Service Advanced Capability Hypersonic Test Bed, or MACH-TB, 2.0 program.
“We are honored to be selected to be part of the MACH-TB 2.0 integrated team,” commented Michael Johns, senior vice president of Kratos SRE. “The nation is at a critical point in the need for rapid and affordable hypersonic flight testing to quickly develop and field hypersonic technologies and the MACH-TB program is filling that need.”
Kratos Supports DOD’s Hypersonic Effort
The San Diego, California-based defense contractor secured the prime role in Task Area 1 of the MACH-TB 2.0 effort. The company will lead a number of subcontractors that will provide systems engineering, mission planning and execution, launch, and assembly, integration and test services. The list of subcontractors includes Rocket Lab, Leidos, Northwind, Corvid Technologies, the University of Minnesota and Purdue University.
MACH-TB 2.0 builds on the progress made under the initial MACH-TB program launched in November 2022. The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Test Resource Management Center established the initiative to support the National Hypersonic Initiative 2.0, which aims to accelerate hypersonic development in the United States.
MACH-TB 2.0 is designed to bridge the gap between hypersonic ground tests and system-level flights.
“We are excited to continue the success of the MACH-TB program with this award,” said George Rumford, director of the OUSD (R&E) Test Resource Management Center. “MACH-TB is an essential tool to accelerate science and technology experiments into next generation, leap-ahead hypersonic capabilities for our nation.”
