The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the U.S. Air Force tested for the second time a Raytheon Technologies-built hypersonic missile powered by a scramjet engine from Northrop Grumman.

The Raytheon version of the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept system flew for more than 300 nautical miles at altitudes higher than 60,000 feet and hypersonic speeds faster than Mach 5 after being released from an aircraft during the flight test conducted in early July, DARPA said Monday.

“This most recent test allowed exploration of more of the flight and scramjet engine operating envelopes,” said Andrew “Tippy” Knoedler, HAWC program manager at DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office.

“The Navy and Air Force will have access to the data we’ve collected as they make development decisions for future high-speed weapons,” added Knoedler.

Raytheon said the test flight demonstrated tactical range capabilities, met all other main and secondary objectives and used all lessons learned and data from the initial flight test conducted in September 2021.

The scramjet-powered HAWC missile uses air for sustained propulsion, enabling the weapon to evade defense systems and quickly reach targets.

In April, DARPA announced the completion of a test flight of a Lockheed Martin-built configuration of the hypersonic air-breathing system that runs on an Aerojet Rocketdyne-made scramjet engine.

Jessica Rosenworcel, chair of the Federal Communications Commission, has called for a faster broadband service and an updated goal for broadband speed in the long term.

In a Notice of Inquiry circulated by Rosenworcel, she pointed out that FCC’s 25/3 speed metric has been surpassed by what was required by internet users and that it was “behind the times.”

“That’s why we need to raise the standard for minimum broadband speeds now and while also aiming even higher for the future, because we need to set big goals if we want everyone everywhere to have a fair shot at 21st century success,” she said.

The national broadband standard is proposed to be raised to 20 megabits per second for upload and 100 megabits per second for download while a separate national goal of 1 Gbps/500 Mbps is encouraged to be set for the future.

The broadband standard of 25/3 Mbps was set by the FCC in 2015.

Agencies have increased their cloud services spending by 60 percent through the General Services Administration’s governmentwide acquisition contracts in the last five years and Allen Hill, deputy assistant commissioner for category management at GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, said the rise could be attributed to the shift to remote work environment, Federal News Network reported Friday.

“A lot of the drivers had to do with the enterprise type services that the cloud offers. For example, email-as-a-service and collaboration tools-as-a-service,” Hill told FNN in an interview. 

“Why? Because we went to a remote environment that demand to have individual staff work at their homes and where they were at was so important. That change in direction for the agencies, rapidly scaling up to what was necessary was very important,” he added.

Although agencies continue to spend on cloud services, Hill said these organizations have become more focused on business applications as they take a slower approach to ensure that they have the right skillsets and infrastructure in place before making the transition.

“It has slowed down this year. That’s really because of the scalability of the business applications and taking that very detailed look of what needs to occur for that transition to occur,” he said. 

Hill, who will join the Federal Communications Commission in August to serve as chief information officer, also discussed the agencies’ interest in as-a-service framework or managed services as they adopt 5G and implement software-defined networks.

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said the service has decided to cancel the drone wingman concept for the B-21 Raider bomber after carrying out some analysis, Breaking Defense reported Saturday.

“The idea of a similar range collaborative combat aircraft is not turning out to be cost effective, so it looks like we’re not going to go that direction,” Kendall, a three-time Wash100 Award winner, told the publication in an exclusive interview at an event in London.

Bombers are typically large aircraft and he said the idea of building an unmanned counterpart of B-21 seems to be “less attractive than we thought it might be” because a drone of that size could drive cost.

“For relatively small platforms, taking a crew out can make it much cheaper,” said Kendall, who first announced the wingman concept in December.

“But for large platforms, you don’t gain that much because the crew is only a small fraction of the weight, a small fraction of the cost by comparison,” he added.

The Air Force intends to procure at least 100 units of the Northrop Grumman-built B-21 Raider bomber.

Kendall is scheduled to deliver the keynote address during the Potomac Officers Club’s 2022 Air Force Summit on July 26. Visit the POC Events page to learn more about the upcoming in-person event.