Following a troubled flight testing campaign, the Air Force decided not to include any funding to procure ARRW in its budget request for fiscal 2025. At the time, officials said it would take time to fully analyze and understand data gathered during the test campaign before fully committing to putting more money toward the system’s development or fielding.

But comments made by Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin on Thursday suggest the service has resolved to continue funding the ARRW program rather than end it.

“I will tell you that we are developing — and you’ll see in the budget submission, assuming it’s what we put forward — two different programs. One is a larger form factor that is more strategic [and] long range that we have already tested several times — it’s called ARRW,” Allvin said during a House Armed Services Committee hearing.

Developing hypersonic missiles has been a top priority for the entire Defense Department as U.S. adversaries continue to mature their own technology. The weapons are able to reach speeds of Mach 5 or higher and are highly maneuverable in-flight, making them difficult for air defense systems to intercept.

And while the Air Force, Army and Navy each have respective hypersonic missiles development programs, all of the weapons so far have yielded mixed results during flight test campaigns.

After a successful all-up-round test for ARRW in late 2022, the Air Force conducted three additional tests in 2023 and a final one in 2024 — but declined to share any results, casting doubt on whether all objectives were met during the campaign.

In 2023, then-Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall admitted to lawmakers that ARRW’s second test in March of that year was deemed unsuccessful. As a result, he said the service intended to reevaluate the program as it finished flight tests, but would shift focus to its other hypersonic missile program, known as the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM).

Furthermore, a 2024 report from the Pentagon’s weapons tester revealed that ARRW’s test campaign was also challenged by a lack of available infrastructure and insufficient means to collect critical flight data. 

Now, both ARRW and HACM are “continuing to develop and moving beyond [research, development, test and evaluation] and getting into the procurement range in the very near future,” Allvin told lawmakers Thursday.

Under development by Lockheed Martin since 2018, ARRW is a boost-glide missile that uses a rocket booster to reach hypersonic speeds, meaning the weapon is large and can only be launched via very big aircraft like the Air Force’s B-52 Stratofortress bomber.

On the other hand, HACM is a smaller, air-breathing scramjet hypersonic missile that is compatible with more aircraft, including fighter jets. RTX was tapped to develop a prototype design for HACM in 2022, and the service was expected to conduct at least 13 tests between October 2024 and March 2027 before production decisions are made, according to the Government Accountability Office’s annual Weapon System Assessment report released last year.

“The Air Force plans to transition HACM to the major capability acquisition pathway at either development start or production start in 2027, depending on what capabilities the Air Force is willing to accept and whether production facilities are ready,” the GAO report stated.

The Air Force declined to provide additional details regarding ARRW’s fate until the FY ’26 budget is approved.

Lockheed Martin deferred specific questions to the Air Force, but a spokesperson told DefenseScoop that the company “has full confidence in the maturity and production readiness of ARRW hypersonic-strike capabilities. We continue partnering with the U.S. Air Force to meet the urgent needs of our warfighters.”

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In that position, Michael will serve as the primary advisor to the secretary of defense and other Defense Department leaders on tech development and transition, prototyping, experimentation, and management of testing ranges and activities. He’ll also be in charge of synchronizing science and technology efforts across the DOD.

Michael comes to the job from the private sector, where he’s been a business executive, advisor and investor. He told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee that he’s been involved with more than 50 different tech companies during his career. Perhaps most notable, from 2013 to 2017, he was chief business officer at Uber.

In government, he previously served as special assistant to the secretary of defense when Robert Gates was Pentagon chief.

Michael was born in Egypt and his family moved to the United States when he was a child to escape what he described as hostility to Christians.

“Emil has lived the American Dream by building several successful Tech companies, including Uber,” then President-elect Donald Trump said in a statement in December when he announced his pick for Pentagon R&E chief, adding that Michael will “ensure that our Military has the most technologically sophisticated weapons in the World, while saving A LOT of money for our Taxpayers.”

Michael touted his business background during his confirmation hearing in March and in responses to written questions from senators. He noted that he previously served on the Defense Business Board, which provides independent advice to Pentagon leaders on business management issues.

“I am a firm believer that bringing best practices from the private sector into the Department is a top priority because, if adopted effectively, they will streamline operation and allocate resources more appropriately,” Michael told lawmakers.

He suggested that some research and development programs could end up on the chopping block under his watch, saying Pentagon officials need to have the discipline to “stop projects that are failing” and focus S&T investments on “only those things that are aligned on our ‘peace through strength’ mission.”

“Time must be a factor in all of our decisions as we confront an increasingly sophisticated adversary in China, which not only has lower labor costs, but is notorious for intellectual property theft, making its research and development … even faster and less expensive than we could have imagined only a decade ago,” he said.

Michael also told senators that he would work to “recast” the relationship between the Defense Department and the emerging tech sector.

“The DOD needs to foster a more robust and competitive defense industrial base by providing more realistic requirements, inviting smaller and innovative companies with less burdensome processes, becoming more agile in how and when we grant contracts. The private sector too should bear some more responsibility for the risks of their own failure. A healthy ecosystem will provide for weapons that are better, cheaper and faster,” he said at his confirmation hearing.

He suggested venture capitalists could play an even larger role in supporting the defense industrial base, particularly for small businesses that need additional funding to thrive in that marketplace. For example, he told lawmakers that, if confirmed, he would look for opportunities under Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) programs for small businesses to leverage VC investment.

The Pentagon’s R&E chief plays a key role in fostering next-generation military capabilities and overseeing work on the “critical technology areas” that the Pentagon has identified. Those areas currently include trusted AI and autonomy; space; integrated sensing and cyber; integrated network systems of systems; microelectronics; human-machine interfaces; advanced materials; directed energy; advanced computing and software; hypersonics; biotech; quantum; FutureG wireless tech; and “energy resilience.”

“If confirmed, I look forward to reviewing the work being done in all 14 Critical Technology Areas and ensuring the Department’s resources are focused on our most critical challenges with the right amount of weight behind each area,” Michael told lawmakers.

He highlighted AI, autonomous systems, quantum computing, directed energy and hypersonics as some of his top priorities, if confirmed.

The R&E directorate is also expected to play a major role in Trump’s Golden Dome missile defense initiative.

Michael noted that Golden Dome will require systems engineers across the DOD to collaborate on architecture and software, in partnership with the development and acquisition communities.

After he’s sworn in, Michael will take over for James Mazol, who has been performing the duties of undersecretary for R&E during the early months of the second Trump administration. Heidi Shyu was the last person to hold the role in a Senate-confirmed capacity during the Biden administration.

Updated on May 15, 2025, at 4:15 PM: A previous version of this story stated that “renewable energy generation and storage” was one of DOD’s 14 “critical technology areas.” While that was the case during the Biden administration, the Trump administration has changed the focus to “energy resilience.” This story has been updated to reflect that change.

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Jewell’s nomination was sent to Capitol Hill Monday and will be considered by the Senate Armed Services Committee, according to a notice posted on Congress.gov.

An experienced aerospace engineer, Jewell has spent decades in both academia and government working on hypersonics research and development. He most recently served as an associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics at Purdue University, where he was the director of the school’s Mach 6 quiet wind tunnel that’s able to test hypersonic capabilities. Jewell also spent two years researching hypersonics technology at the Air Force Research Laboratory, according to his LinkedIn bio.

The S&T job at the Pentagon that Jewell has been tapped for, was one of the new roles established in the fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act as part of a reorganization within the department’s research and engineering directorate. Aprille Ericsson held that position during the Biden administration.

If confirmed, Jewell would be tasked to oversee the Defense Department’s extensive S&T enterprise — including emerging technologies, workforce, laboratories, and partnerships with industry and academia. Key initiatives for the office include FutureG, quantum science, advanced manufacturing and hypersonics research, among others.

Jewell’s experience with hypersonics would be helpful for the DOD. Development of the advanced weapons — able to fly at speeds of Mach 5 or greater while maneuvering through the atmosphere — has been a top priority for the department. However, several ongoing programs have struggled in recent years, largely due to limited test infrastructure and the technology’s complexity.

Since taking office for his second term in January, Trump has taken interest in bolstering the United States’ homeland missile defense via his Golden Dome effort, formerly known as the “Iron Dome For America.” The project looks to build a multi-layered architecture that can effectively track and defeat a range of threats, including hypersonic systems. To that end, the Pentagon will need kinetic and non-kinetic mechanisms — as well as infrastructure to test and validate them — to intercept adversary weapons.

The assistant secretary of defense for S&T is nested under the Pentagon’s undersecretary for research and engineering. Trump’s nominee for that position is Emil Michael, former chief business officer at Uber, who is awaiting confirmation by the Senate.

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The other transaction authority agreement is for Task Area 1 of MACH-TB 2.0, an initiative that broadly aims to expand options for the Pentagon to demonstrate and validate hypersonic weapons and related technologies. If all options are exercised, the deal has a performance period of five years and a total value of $1.45 billion — the single largest contract ever awarded to the contractor.

“We are honored to be selected to be part of the MACH-TB 2.0 integrated team. 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,” Michael Johns, senior vice president of Kratos, said in a statement.

Under the agreement for Task Area 1, Kratos will conduct systems engineering, integration and testing “to include integrated subscale, full-scale, and air launch services to address the need to affordably increase hypersonic flight test cadence,” according to the company.

Kratos will lead an industry team for the contract that also includes Leidos, Rocket Lab, Stratolaunch and others.

First initiated by the Navy in 2022, the MACH-TB program intends to create new, low-cost options for testing hypersonic technologies in order to accelerate overall capability development and fielding. After conducting over 25 flight tests and creating a hypersonic boost glide testbed under MACH-TB 1.0, the Pentagon is now moving to transition that technology from design and concept demonstration to full-flight test capacity in fiscal 2025 under the follow-on MACH-TB 2.0 effort.

The program is being divided into three separate task areas, according to the Pentagon. Awards for the other two task areas have yet to be announced.

The Defense Department has several ongoing efforts across the military services and components to develop hypersonic technologies. Hypersonic missiles are able to reach speeds greater than Mach 5 and are highly maneuverable in-flight, making it difficult for traditional air defense systems to intercept them.

However, a limited amount of adequate testing infrastructure has hindered overall development and delayed fielding for several hypersonics programs.

Previously, Kratos served as a subcontractor for the initial MACH-TB 1.0 program. The company also announced it successfully flew its Erinyes test vehicle for the Missile Defense Agency’s first Hypersonic Testbed (HTB-1) experimental mission last year.

“Kratos is honored to receive the largest contract award in our company’s history, a testament of the value Kratos’ employees and team bring both to our Company and United States National Security,” Eric DeMarco, president and CEO of Kratos Defense and Security Solutions, said in a statement. “This programmatic milestone underscores our unwavering commitment to making upfront investments for rapidly developing, and being first to market with affordable, mission-critical solutions that meet the evolving needs of the warfighter.”

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Signed under Pillar 2 of the AUKUS trilateral security pact, the so-called Hypersonic Flight Test and Experimentation (HyFliTE) project arrangement includes plans to conduct at least six flight test campaigns by 2028, according to a news release from the Pentagon. A funding pool worth $252 million will be used to finance the efforts, the release noted.

“We are increasing our collective ability to develop and deliver offensive and defensive hypersonic technologies through a robust series of trilateral tests and experiments that will accelerate the development of hypersonic concepts and critical enabling technologies,” U.S. Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Heidi Shyu said in a statement.

As one of Shyu’s 14 critical technology areas, hypersonic weapons are a key development effort at the Defense Department. The missiles are able to fly and maneuver through the atmosphere at speeds of at least Mach 5 — or five times the speed of sound — making them difficult to intercept and defeat.

The U.S. Air Force, Army and Navy have each invested significant time and money into developing their own hypersonic missiles, but individual efforts have faced hurdles during their testing campaigns that have stalled final acquisition and fielding decisions. Those challenges, in part, have been attributed to a limited number of testing facilities and ranges within the United States.

Through HyFliTE, the three AUKUS nations are looking to ramp up the pace of hypersonic weapons testing through collaboration on resources, experience and test facilities. 

“Collaborative efforts are accelerating the development of underpinning enabling technologies, such as high temperature materials, advanced propulsion systems, and guidance and control,” Shyu said. “Each of these technologies is integral to the performance of hypersonic weapon systems and provides enhanced operational capability.”

Australia has previously partnered with the United States on hypersonics through the Southern Cross Integrated Flight Research Experiment (SCIFiRE) effort. The nation is also home to the Woomera Range Complex, a large and highly specialized testing center that could be leveraged for live flight testing of these types of systems.

“This agreement will accelerate Australia’s sovereign ability to develop and deliver offensive and defensive hypersonic technologies — through a robust testing and experimentation campaign under AUKUS Pillar II,” Tanya Monro, Australia’s chief defense scientist, said in a statement.

According to a news release from the United Kingdom, the HyFliTE project is also expected to foster deep collaboration between the three allies’ industrial bases in order to break down acquisition barriers and strengthen supply chains.

The U.K. has also sourced domestic industry support for hypersonic weapons development through its Hypersonic Technologies and Capability Development Framework, including more than 90 suppliers and a commercial headroom of up to 1 billion British pounds, the news release added.

“This landmark arrangement with our US and Australian partners demonstrates the commitment of AUKUS partners to staying at the forefront of battle-winning defence technology,” United Kingdom Secretary of State for Defence John Healey said in a statement. “This work will keep us ahead of our adversaries on the battlefield, enhance our collective security and contribute to maintaining peace and stability in an increasingly complex and dangerous world.”

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Hosted by the White Field Research Laboratory, the 3,000-square-foot lab space is home to a quiet wind tunnel able to simulate hypersonic flight at speeds up to Mach 10 — or 10 times the speed of sound. The Navy served as the funding agency for the tunnel’s fabrication, with Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane acting as the contract monitor, and future operations will be funded through research grants and contracts.

DefenseScoop received an exclusive first look at the new facility, which is designed for both fundamental hypersonic research and programmatic testing for the government and industry. The wind tunnel is expected to help the Pentagon address gaps in hypersonics research, testing and workforce development.

“Hypersonic flight represents unique challenges and opportunities, and these facilities are vital to our test and evaluation efforts, enabling us to stipulate and study the extreme conditions that hypersonic vehicles will encounter,” Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Christopher Grady said during the ribbon cutting ceremony at the University of Notre Dame. 

Hypersonic weapons are maneuvering missiles that fly through the atmosphere at speeds of Mach 5 or higher, making them difficult for adversary air defense systems to intercept them. Their development has been a top priority for the Defense Department in recent years, especially as adversaries like China and Russia continue to tout their own advancements in high-speed missiles.

Although the Army, Navy and Air Force have ongoing programs to develop hypersonic missiles, the department has struggled to get the capability across the finish line — with several programs experiencing problems during their testing campaigns.

“Anything that is testing, anything that is like training ranges and those kinds of things, they often don’t get the heat and light that other things do. But woe be unto us if we don’t invest in those to make sure that we have the apparatus that underpins everything else,” Grady said in an interview with DefenseScoop.

The Pentagon uses wind tunnels to conduct ground testing and validate system performance. The complex facilities are designed to simulate hypersonic flight at austere speeds and atmospheric conditions, giving researchers insights into aerodynamics, thermal management and structural integrity.

But because the few facilities available to the Pentagon are in high demand, the department is turning to Notre Dame and other academic institutions part of the University Consortium for Applied Hypersonics to help close that critical testing gap.

“When we see a university like this or across the entire consortium move into this space, that is really powerful because it adds to that testing ecosystem,” Grady said.

Notre Dame’s new facility is a quiet — or low-disturbance — wind tunnel, meaning it can test hypersonic systems without turbulence, allowing researchers to understand how wind tunnel “noise” impacts performance, Thomas Corke, the university’s Clark Equipment Professor in engineering and director of the university’s Hypersonic Systems Initiative, told DefenseScoop. 

“There are some situations in which the impact of the tunnel noise is not important, which then allows the government facilities to continue on that road,” he said. “So it’s very important — and that was in our thinking — to be able to take the same test articles that would be in a government lab … and be able to put the same article in our facility, and be able to make that contrast.”

There are only a handful of quiet wind tunnels in the United States — including a Mach 6 tunnel and a Mach 8 tunnel, both of which are located at Purdue University, and another Mach 6 tunnel operated by Texas A&M University. While Notre Dame’s new facility adds capacity to the hypersonic testing ecosystem, Corke also noted it will be critical to testing at speeds closer to Mach 10 where there are fundamental changes in aerodynamics that occur.

“Ground testing is important, and ground testing is meant to predict what happens in flight. And so if it doesn’t predict what happens in flight, it’s not doing the role it’s supposed to do,” Corke said.

Along with testing capacity, Notre Dame’s new wind tunnel will also address a gap in the workforce that is challenging the United States’ hypersonic systems development by training people who will carry their skills over to government or industry once they graduate.

“The role of a university like this to inflame passions on the part of young scientists and engineers and technicians, I think, is absolutely critical. But then somebody’s got to build this stuff when we finally figure out what the system is,” Grady said. “And so having a strong focus then on — I don’t call them workers, these are craftsmen and artisans of the highest order — is important if it’s going to work.”

Notre Dame is creating a master’s program in hypersonic systems, with a particular focus on developing pipelines from military academies that allow personnel to pursue an advanced degree, Corke said. The university is also training doctoral students on advanced topics related to hypersonics to ensure there isn’t a future gap in people who can teach future generations of engineers and scientists, he added.

The plans align with Grady’s push for workforce “permeability,” a concept he’s working on alongside Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, he said. The idea is to have people rotate to academia for a few years, and then return to industry or government — where they can receive security clearance — in a continuous cycle.

“We gain because we get all that expertise from academia or industry. I think they gain when they go back, because they understand what we want,” Grady said. “And so that’s the wave of the future in many aspects.”

Updated on Nov. 14, 2024, at 3:15 PM: This story has been updated to note that the wind tunnel is hosted by the White Field Research Laboratory. A previous version stated that it was hosted by the Notre Dame Turbomachinery Laboratory.

Updated on Nov. 18, 2024, at 4:40 PM: This story has been updated to note that Texas A&M University has a quiet wind tunnel.

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The GPI program looks to develop a system that can intercept and defeat incoming hypersonics while they are flying through the edges of the Earth’s atmosphere, also known as the glide phase. The missiles will be fired from Aegis-equipped U.S. Navy destroyers and the Aegis Ashore system.

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency — which is leading the program in partnership with Japan’s Ministry of Defense — expects Northrop Grumman’s selection to result in follow-on development and production, according to the agency.

“Today’s decision represents a turning point for hypersonic glide phase defense,” MDA Director Lt. Gen. Heath Collins said in a statement. “I’m very proud of the entire team including our industry partners, for all the hard work to get to this point. It is also an honor to have Japan as our partner as we move forward on this critical counter-hypersonic capability.”

Hypersonic missile defense has been a modernization priority for the Pentagon, as key adversaries such as China and Russia advance development of their own systems. The weapons are able to reach speeds of Mach 5 or greater and maneuver through the Earth’s atmosphere, making it difficult for traditional air defense systems to intercept them.

Washington and Tokyo signed an official GPI cooperative development project arrangement for the program in May, which tasked Japan to lead development of rocket motors and propulsion components for GPI, according to the Defense Department.

Northrop Grumman beat out RTX for the continued development work. Both companies received other transaction agreements (OTAs) for the program in 2022 after Lockheed Martin was booted from the effort. In 2023, the agency transitioned both Northrop and RTX’s designs for the GPI program to the “technology development phase” — equivalent to a Milestone A decision.

The agency requested $182 million for GPI in its fiscal 2025 budget request. It plans for the missiles to reach initial operational capability by the end of 2029 and full operational capability by the 2030s.

Under its existing OTA contract, Northrop Grumman will continue to refine GPI’s preliminary design; demonstrate system performance in hypersonic environments ahead of the program’s preliminary design review; conduct company-led flight experiments; and leverage digital engineering tools to accelerate the design process, the company said in a release.

Northrop’s GPI design features advanced “seeker for threat tracking and hit-to-kill accuracy, a re-ignitable upper stage engine used for threat containment and a dual engagement mode to engage threats across a wide range of altitudes,” according to the contractor.

“GPI adds mission critical standoff to warfighters in scenarios where distance creates an advantage. Tailorable to a multitude of mission requirements, Northrop Grumman’s revolutionary solution is designed to perform in the evolving threat landscape,” Wendy Williams, Northrop Grumman’s vice president and manager of launch and missile defense systems, said in a statement.

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These engagements will mark the 34th Australia-United States Ministerial Consultation, or AUSMIN, which is considered a key annual forum for deliberation between the long-standing allies.

During a call with reporters on Monday, two senior defense officials previewed the talks and spotlighted overarching aims to deepen the partnership between Washington and Canberra.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was first scheduled to meet bilaterally with Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Richard Marles at the Pentagon. On Tuesday, they were slated to join their diplomatic counterparts, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong, for the AUSMIN gathering in Annapolis, Maryland, a senior defense official said.

“These engagements will advance the historic progress of the alliance, including on force posture, defense industrial base integration, and collaboration on advanced capabilities,” the official added.

Broadly, the American and Australian militaries have fought together in all major conflicts since World War I — and the two nations’ bilateral defense ties are increasingly and exceptionally close. More recently, they’ve been working together to deter China’s growing influence in the western Pacific region and collaboratively tackle military-related supply chain challenges.

“On defense industrial cooperation, we’re making significant progress with Australia,” a senior defense official told reporters during the call. 

“By this December, we will work to conclude an agreement on precision guided missiles, or PrSM, that covers cooperative production, sustainment and follow-on development activities — and we will also establish a joint programs office to advance these activities in 2025 in Huntsville, Alabama,” they confirmed.  

Also on the docket for discussion is solidifying the United States’ plan to support Australia’s production of guided multiple launch rocket system missiles (GMLRS). 

“The two announcements that we will be making are that we will be pursuing memorandums of understanding for both GMLRS, and then separately for PrSM. Those MOUs will outline the mechanisms for co-production, including the intent to produce viable volumes of GMLRS for global consumption — and then for PrSM, outlining more of our way forward in terms of cooperative production, post-sustainment and follow-on development. So at this time, we don’t have further information to report, but once we have those MOUs negotiated — those will outline kind of our next steps,” a second senior defense official told reporters.

They further hinted at the military partners’ joint plans to integrate new capabilities and test new operational concepts during the next iteration of the Talisman Sabre exercise in 2025 — including amphibious training at Shoalwater Bay.

“We’re also working collaboratively on cutting-edge hypersonic technologies that will provide critical advantage to the warfighter. Australia and the United States are making significant progress in design and ground testing to develop an air-launched hypersonic weapon under the Southern Cross Integrated Flight Research Experiment, or SCIFiRE, which is supporting the bilateral flight test program of the hypersonic attack cruise missile,” the senior defense official said.

The two nations are also aiming to enhance their “force posture cooperation in unprecedented ways,” according to the official.

The militaries are continuing more regular rotations of warfighting platforms, they noted, as well as expanding their logistics cooperation, including by assessing places where the U.S. could locate an enduring logistics support area in Queensland, Australia.

“At AUSMIN, we’ll be announcing new and longer-term operating locations in Australia for force posture cooperation … building upon additional infrastructure upgrades that are already underway at Australia’s northern air bases,” the senior defense official said. 

This high-level meetup notably comes on the heels of a 10-day series of engagements that Austin conducted with multiple partners around Asia.

Extending some of those discussions, this week the U.S. and Australia plan to look into ways they can grow cooperative maritime activities together with the Philippines, another American ally which is involved in maritime disputes with China.

Additionally, “we’re fostering greater intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, or ISR, cooperation by establishing more trilateral exercises and activities between the United States, Australia and Japan in the Indo-Pacific region,” the senior defense official said.

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According to a commercial solutions opening posted to DIU’s website Thursday, the organization is seeking prototypes that can be demonstrated for military applications under its Transition of Quantum Sensors (TQS) program. The multiyear, multiphase effort aims to mature quantum sensing technologies and demonstrate them for “end-to-end DOD operational utility.”

The TQS program is part of the unit’s new “Emerging Technology” portfolio, also announced by DIU Thursday. Air Force Lt. Col. Nicholas Estep has been tapped to lead the portfolio, which will focus on commercial and non-traditional “deep-tech” capabilities that do not have established or defined transition pathways to the Defense Department’s business ecosystem, according to a press release.

DIU’s other portfolios include artificial intelligence, autonomy, cyber and telecom, energy, human systems and space.

Quantum sensors are designed to detect changes in movement and electric and magnetic fields at the atomic level, offering “the promise of significant improvements in precision, accuracy, and sensitivity compared to classical sensors,” the TQS solicitation noted. 

The technology has reached the point of maturity where the Pentagon is ready to conduct operational demonstrations for military applications, according to the listing. The TQS program will have three lines of effort: inertial sensing, magnetometers and technology insertions for spiral enhancements to quantum sensing.

The initiative will mainly explore how both inertial and magnetic sensor systems can provide enhancements and security to the Pentagon’s PNT-dependent missions, such as dynamic space operations.

When compared to conventional systems, inertial sensors have demonstrated a reduced drift rate — or the gradual, subtle changes in the sensor that can cause discrepancies between the actual data being measured and what is output by a system.

“The result of reduced drift from quantum inertial systems is extended navigation solution holdover times, increasing mission effectiveness during absence of precision position updates from systems like GPS,” the solicitation noted.

On the other hand, magnetic navigation (MagNav) systems are highly immune to interference from either adversary attacks or environment conditions. As a result, these sensors could operate where others could not, “such as over water, when weather may obstruct celestial and terrain visibility, or during long missions when drift dominates the inertial nav solution,” according to the post.

DIU is also interested in how magnetometers can enhance geomagnetic surveying and magnetic anomaly detection missions for submarines and explosive hazardous materials. The organization is looking for commercial solutions that can be integrated onto drones and maintain the necessary sensitivity to accurately track anomalous magnetic signatures in the Earth.

Proposals are due by May 29. Industry can submit their solutions for either one or both use cases, but DIU intends to prioritize technologies with modular, iterative designs that can address both mission areas.

“The intent is to have mid-course functional demonstrations of end-to-end solutions, followed by operational demonstrations within the next five years for relevant military applications and mission sets to conclude the prototyping program,” the post noted. “The opportunity for design spirals, to include technical enhancement insertions, is expected during the program.”

Another early focus for DIU’s new emerging tech portfolio will be on existing and upcoming hypersonics efforts. It will take over the organization’s High-cadence Airborne Testing Capabilities (HyCAT) program, which aims to prototype hypersonic testing systems for the Defense Department. 

In the future, the portfolio will launch prototyping efforts for “advanced materials and propulsion, nanotechnology, photonics, microelectronics, additive manufacturing and quantum information science,” according to a release.

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The next-generation missile, also known as the hypersonic air-launched OASuW (HALO), is intended to be carried by aircraft carrier-based fighter jets such as the Super Hornet with the capability of sinking enemy ships.

The technology will include “a carrier-suitable, higher-speed, longer-range, air-launched weapon system providing superior Anti-Surface Warfare capabilities” that will “address advanced threats from engagement distances that allow the Navy to operate in, and control, contested battle space in littoral waters and Anti-Access/Area Denial (A2/AD) environments,” per the new budget justification books.

Although the name of the weapon suggests it will be hypersonic, it might not actually cross that threshold and meet the traditional definition of that term with regard to velocity, according to the Navy’s program executive officer for unmanned aviation and strike weapons.

“From a speed perspective, the hypersonics is a little bit of a misnomer [for HALO]. We’re not actually that concerned about Mach 5. It’s about distance and time — can I close the range that we want as quickly as possible … It’s going to be probably in the high Mach 4-plus category as far as its peak speed. But we’re really focused on, can I close distance at speed, potentially, to the point where [in-flight target update] is not required,” Rear Adm. Stephen Tedford said during a briefing at last year’s Sea-Air-Space conference hosted by the Navy League.

The service is requesting $179 million in fiscal 2025 for research, development, test and evaluation funding for the project — much more than the $99 million that previous budget plans anticipated.

The Navy is also planning to spend $197 million in fiscal 2026, $177 million in 2027, $167 million in 2028 and $147 million in 2029 on RDT&E for the initiative.

By comparison, spending projections released last year anticipated $83 million in 2026, $85 million in 2027 and $86 million in 2028 for RDT&E of HALO. Funding projections for fiscal 2029 were not included in the budget justification documents released last year because they fell outside the five-year planning period covered by those books.

In order to counter evolving “near-peer” threats, HALO has been “accelerated” to achieve early operational capability in fiscal 2029, according to the new justification documents. The Navy requested $96 million for the program in fiscal 2024. The increase proposed for 2025 would support a transition from a middle-tier acquisition program to a major capability acquisition effort at Milestone B.

“This transition will allow for Early Operational Capability (EOC) in FY 2029,” per the justification books.

Naval Air Systems Command previously awarded two contracts to Raytheon Missiles and Defense and Lockheed Martin in 2023, with a total value of $116 million, for initial development work on the HALO technology.

An engineering and manufacturing development contract is scheduled to be awarded in fiscal 2025, according to the justification documents. Subsystem critical design reviews, the process of acquiring long lead material, and qualification test events are also expected to begin.

A Milestone C production decision is expected in fiscal 2027.

The new budget justification books include a line item that appears to indicate planned procurement funding for HALO beginning in fiscal 2027. Projected funding under that line item includes $59 million in 2027, $98 million in 2028 and $157 million in 2029.

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