The AFWERX Weapons Program Executive Office is seeking to develop future, low-cost variants of cruise missiles through a Design Sprint and Challenge.
According to AFWERX Challenge team lead Cayley Dymond, the envisioned weapon must reach high subsonic speeds, have a range of approximately 500 nautical miles and cost $150,000 per unit when acquired in bulk, AFRL said Friday.
The first phase of the Design Sprint — which took place in September — sought to address additional criteria: that the proposed weapon is affordable when delivered in mass, scalable and readily available to allies and partners.
The Design Sprint saw participation from multiple organizations, including Mitre, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Labs, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and Sandia National Lab.
The next phase of the Weapons PEO Challenge will take place early this year and cover a variety of challenges, including the delivery of a manufacturing test bed for production concepts. According to Dymond, the challenge is also expected to result in the integration of a flight-test-ready design within the year.
Overall, the Weapons PEO Challenge is “about building a formidable team poised for success in the project’s forthcoming phases,” Dymond said.
