The Department of Defense’s Test Resource Management Center and Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division have completed two flight tests for a reusable hypersonic vehicle.
In both the December 2024 and March 2025 trials, the Stratolaunch Talon-A hypersonic vehicle launched from a Roc carrier aircraft, flew over the Pacific Ocean and breached Mach 5 speed, the Department of Defense said Monday. The experiments advanced TRMC’s Multi-Service Advanced Capability Hypersonics Test Bed, or MACH-TB, program, which aims to accelerate hypersonic vehicle testing using commercial launch systems.
MACH-TB Milestone
“Demonstrating the reuse of fully recoverable hypersonic test vehicles is an important milestone for MACH-TB,” according to TRMC Director George Rumford. “Lessons learned from this test campaign will help us reduce vehicle turnaround time from months down to weeks,” he added.
“Being able to complete these large-scale launches shows how our team is helping the customer move faster by using commercial capabilities,” noted Mike Maughan, aerospace systems lead at Leidos, the project’s prime contractor.
Advanced Hypersonic Capability Development
The MACH-TB program was established to provide the DOD and other federal agencies with the ability to rapidly conduct hypersonic experiments and test hypersonic system components. The initiative aims to accelerate the delivery of advanced hypersonic capabilities to U.S. warfighters. NSWC Crane selected Leidos to support the effort, and the company tapped Stratolaunch to provide flight test services for the project.
