[Mukilteo, Washington, November 11, 2022] – Karman Space & Defense (“Karman”), has been selected as a member of an industry team led by Dynetics (a wholly owned subsidiary of Leidos) to increase the capacity for America’s hypersonic flight test efforts. The program, known as Multi-Service Advanced Capability Hypersonics Test Bed (MACH-TB), was awarded through Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Crane Division’s Strategic and Spectrum Missions Advanced Resilient Trusted Systems, or S2MARTS, other transaction agreement (OTA) on behalf of the U.S. Department of Defense.
MACH-TB supports hypersonic programs by creating opportunities to test technologies with robust, agile, and modular approaches. It will demonstrate ways to affordably prototype a test bed that leverages multiple, commercially available launch vehicles for hypersonic payloads. The data collected will provide insight to the DoD on technology improvement and capability validation. This will enable more robust and successful developments of hypersonic weapon systems. Additionally, MACH-TB will provide a modular Experimental Glide Body (EGB) to create opportunities for technologies to be tested in relevant hypersonic environments to inform acquisition decisions for weapon systems.
“Karman Space & Defense is both honored and prepared to support the defense of the homeland and our allies in the challenging arena of hypersonic weapons development,” said Tony Koblinski, Karman CEO.
This hypersonics flight test bed will bring to fruition a centralized hypersonic testing capability that can be leveraged by the Navy, Army Long Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW), the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), Air Force hypersonics programs, DoD research programs, small businesses, industry, and academia stakeholders. This program was initiated by the Navy and will be managed by OSD’s Test Resources Management Center (TRMC) and executed by NSWC Crane.
Karman looks forward to collaborating with Dynetics and the National Security Technology Accelerator (NSTXL) and a team of over 20 partners across industry, small businesses, national laboratories, and academia to develop and execute the program.
Karman’s work in support of this effort will be performed in Mukilteo, Washington.
About Karman Space & Defense
Karman Space & Defense is an integrated concept-to-production solutions provider for the space and defense industry’s most complex and mission-critical projects. Through its four regional locations, the company provides solutions for integrated dynamic systems, assemblies, and advanced manufacturing that are used in our industry’s most critical programs, including crewed-space flight and hypersonic missions. The Mukilteo, WA division is a leading manufacturer of separation and deployment systems, integrated launch and retention/release systems, electromechanical systems, and electrical initiation systems as well as aerostructures and advanced composite assemblies including deployable shrouds and fuel tanks. For more information, visit our website Karman-SD.com.