DARPA Signs Contract with Northrop Grumman to Develop Hypersonic Weapons Interceptors for US Air Defense

[Lieutenant]

DARPA Signs Contract with Northrop Grumman to Develop Hypersonic Weapons Interceptors for American Air Defense

• Currently, the only weapon that is capable of shooting down the Hypersonic systems is a laser gun.
• The project is expected to be completed by January 2021.
• Non-maneuvering Hypersonic weapons fly on a ballistic trajectory, and on counter courses, which are easily shot down by supersonic missiles.

DARPA signed a contract with Northrop Grumman valued at $13 million to develop Hypersonic weapons interceptors for American air defense. Currently, the only weapon that is capable of shooting down the Hypersonic systems is a laser gun. With the speed of the light pulse, the gun fires at the current location of the target and the light pulse with a 99.9% probability hits the target, since compared to the speed of light the hypersonic missile is standing still. However, there are not enough powerful lasers that are capable of delivering such results. It is in the development phase and clearly it seems Northrop Grumman is involved in the testing of such lasers.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is an agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American global aerospace and defense technology company. With over 85,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $30 billion, it is one of the world’s largest weapons manufacturers and military technology providers.

It is expected the project will be completed by January 2021. The development of a countermeasure to Hypersonic weapons is being conducted as part of the Glide Breaker program initiated by DARPA in 2018. DARPA showed off concept art of the interceptor portion of Glide Breaker for the first time at its D60 Symposium (which honors the organization’s 60th anniversary) in September 2018. The agency’s Tactical Technology Office previously hosted a gathering to explain the project and its requirements to interested parties in July 2018.

Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed in December, 2019 that Russia is the leader in the Hypersonic weapons arena. His statement coincided with the announcement of the Avangard Hypersonic glide vehicle which took close to three decades to be developed. It is designed be on top of the intercontinental ballistic missile.

The Avangard, previously known as Objekt 4202, Yu-71 and Yu-74, is a Russian hypersonic glide vehicle that can be carried as a MIRV payload by the UR-100UTTKh, R-36M2 and RS-28 Sarmat heavy ICBMs. It can deliver both nuclear and conventional payloads.