Lawmakers seek study of long-distance hypersonic testing ‘corridors’

WASHINGTON — House lawmakers want the the U.S. Department of Defense to explore latest flight range options for testing long-distance hypersonic systems.

An absence of test ranges and other infrastructure is a big limiting factor within the U.S. Department of Defense’s development of hypersonic systems, which might fly and maneuver at speeds of Mach 5 or higher. Officials need to fly these aircraft and weapons at a more regular cadence however the aircraft and ranges it relies on are in high-demand, limiting major programs to just a few flights per yr.

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In its proposed fiscal 2024 defense policy bill, released June 12, the House Armed Services Committee called for the department to check “at the very least two additional corridors” for long-distance hypersonic testing and initiate any environmental reviews that will be required for those tests.

A separate provision would require the Secretary of Defense to temporary the committee by early next yr on its plan to “maximize” using its West Coast flight ranges. That plan should include the price and schedule for making improvements at those locations.

“The committee is aware of the necessity for expanded test ranges for hypersonic, autonomous systems and latest aerospace developments that require access to restricted, air, land and sea space,” the committee said. “The necessity to expand rages for seamless interoperability is paramount to deal with the complexity of weapon systems.”

The bill also notes that DoD is overdue in delivering a hypersonic testing strategy, which was required within the Fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act. Lawmakers proposed blocking a portion of the travel budget for the Pentagon’s undersecretary for policy until that plan is submitted.

Speaking June 14 at a Defense One Technology Summit, Air Force Research Laboratory Chief Technology Officer Timothy Bunning said his team is attempting to do more of its testing in virtual and simulated environments, but that flight-test constraints are a serious detriment to the service’s hypersonic programs.

In reality, he highlighted a recent review from the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board that identified test limitations as “the primary threat straight away to the portfolio.”

“We don’t have what we’d like to operate on the speed of relevance straight away,” Bunning said.

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The Air Force’s Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon had a notable test failure in late March, and repair acquisition chief Andrew Hunter has signaled it might not move forward with this system beyond the prototyping phase.

The House Armed Services Committee’s policy bill — which doesn’t ultimately determine defense appropriation levels, but has influence on the method — recommends cutting the $150 million in fiscal 2024 funding that the service would want to complete ARRW’s prototype phase.

Bunning said today that while failures aren’t ideal, they’re a biproduct of a rigorous test program.

“We’re really exercising muscles that we haven’t exercised shortly,” he said. “These are complex systems and things go incorrect, and now we have to be tolerant of that failure.”