A hypersonic test bed built by Kratos took its first flight last month, launching experiments for the Missile Defense Agency and hitting speeds above Mach 5.
MDA announced the successful flight of its first Hypersonic Testbed, HTB-1, June 14, which took off from Wallops Island in Virginia. Not only did it provide a high-speed test platform for the agency, but it surely allowed its two missile tracking satellites — launched in February and designed to detect advanced threats — to catch their first tracks of a hypersonic vehicle.
While MDA didn’t provide details about which company built the system, Kratos confirmed last week that its Erinyes vehicle — named after the Greek goddess of vengeance — flew the mission.
The corporate developed Erinyes in three years for under $15 million with a combination of internal investment and congressional funding. In keeping with Josh Peterson, senior vp for space and missile defense systems at Kratos, the corporate built the system largely in response to concerns inside the Defense Department that its existing hypersonic test infrastructure was overtaxed and not well positioned to fulfill demand.
Now, Erinyes is drawing significant attention from other potential customers inside the Defense Department, Peterson and Dave Carter, president of Kratos’ defense and rocket support systems division, told C4ISRNET in a July 2 interview.
“There’s been a whole lot of interest from quite a few parties,” Carter said.
Those possible customers include the Pentagon Test Resource Management Center’s Multi-Service Advanced Capability Hypersonic Test Bed, or MACH-TB. This system relies on vehicles like Rocket Lab’s HASTE and Stratolaunch’s Talon-A to check components and subsystems in a practical flight environment that mimics the conditions these systems might face as they fly and maneuver at Mach 5 and better speeds.
Kratos is already involved with MACH-TB as a subcontractor, providing sounding rockets to this system’s prime contractor Leidos. Carter highlighted the vehicle’s affordability — a single Erinyes costs around $5 million, not including the rocket motor that powers it or every other customer-specific requirements — and said he expects it to play a key role in this system moving forward, potentially flying MACH-TB experiments in 2025 or 2026.
Within the meantime, the corporate is eyeing its second flight for MDA, which is slated for later this yr.
Beyond Erinyes, Kratos’ hypersonic development work includes a variety of services for industrial, DOD and classified national security customers. The corporate started off using its sounding rocket technology to supply targeting capabilities to MDA and the Naval Surface Warfare Center in support of its Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System.
It has since supported various hypersonic experiments and is now on contract with the Air Force Research Laboratory for its Mayhem program, which is developing a hypersonic ISR and strike platform.
Kratos can also be developing a line of rocket motors called Zeus, designed to supply greater thrust and range at a lower cost. The corporate sees the system as a response to a necessity inside the defense and industrial markets for reasonably priced launch vehicle propulsion.
Zeus will fly this yr on an undisclosed mission, Carter said, and can eventually be a propulsion option for Erinyes.
“We expect it’s going to provide some additional capabilities for each our goal missions and possibly much more capability for our Erinyes vehicle,” he said. “It’ll give it the extra horsepower to do more sophisticated things.”
Courtney Albon is C4ISRNET’s space and emerging technology reporter. She has covered the U.S. military since 2012, with a concentrate on the Air Force and Space Force. She has reported on among the Defense Department’s most vital acquisition, budget and policy challenges.