NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility successfully supported the launch of two, suborbital, sounding rockets on November 15, 2023, for Navy Strategic Systems Programs (SSP), and the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), in coordination with Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division (NSWC Crane) and the Office of the Secretary of Defense’s Test Resource Management Center (TRMC) Multi-Service Advanced Capability Hypersonic Test Bed (MACH TB).
This test was executed with Sandia National Laboratories from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility. Data collected from this test will be used to inform the development of the Navy’s Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) offensive hypersonic strike capability, MDA’s hypersonic defensive capability, and to mature other hypersonic technologies.
This test demonstrated advanced hypersonic technologies, capabilities, and prototype systems from partners across government, academia, and industry. During weapon system development, subscale tests such as this campaign fill a critical gap between ground testing and full system flight testing by allowing for experiments and prototypes to be flown in a realistic operating environment more frequently and affordably. The increased rate of testing and reduced costs of subscale flight testing supports the rapid maturation and transition of offensive and defensive hypersonic technologies.
This test is a component of the Multi-Service Advanced Capability Hypersonics Test Bed (MACH-TB) that accelerates U.S. hypersonic technology development and transition by providing an affordable, rapid hypersonic flight test capability for DoD programs, NASA, national labs, academia, and industry.
The MACH-TB program was initiated by the Navy CPS Program and NSWC Crane in 2022 to accelerate hypersonic technology development by increasing opportunities for testing of hypersonic technology.
The program is being managed by OSD TRMC to ensure opportunities provided by MACH-TB can be leveraged across the entirety of DoD hypersonic efforts.