Pentagon awards Kratos megadeal worth nearly $1.5B for new hypersonic testbed

The Defense Department has tapped Kratos to develop a testbed for hypersonic vehicles under the Multi-Service Advanced Capability Hypersonic Test Bed 2.0 program, the company announced Monday.

The other transaction authority agreement is for Task Area 1 of MACH-TB 2.0, an initiative that broadly aims to expand options for the Pentagon to demonstrate and validate hypersonic weapons and related technologies. If all options are exercised, the deal has a performance period of five years and a total value of $1.45 billion — the single largest contract ever awarded to the contractor.

“We are honored to be selected to be part of the MACH-TB 2.0 integrated team. The nation is at a critical point in the need for rapid and affordable hypersonic flight testing to quickly develop and field hypersonic technologies and the MACH-TB program is filling that need,” Michael Johns, senior vice president of Kratos, said in a statement.

Under the agreement for Task Area 1, Kratos will conduct systems engineering, integration and testing “to include integrated subscale, full-scale, and air launch services to address the need to affordably increase hypersonic flight test cadence,” according to the company.

Kratos will lead an industry team for the contract that also includes Leidos, Rocket Lab, Stratolaunch and others.

First initiated by the Navy in 2022, the MACH-TB program intends to create new, low-cost options for testing hypersonic technologies in order to accelerate overall capability development and fielding. After conducting over 25 flight tests and creating a hypersonic boost glide testbed under MACH-TB 1.0, the Pentagon is now moving to transition that technology from design and concept demonstration to full-flight test capacity in fiscal 2025 under the follow-on MACH-TB 2.0 effort.

The program is being divided into three separate task areas, according to the Pentagon. Awards for the other two task areas have yet to be announced.

The Defense Department has several ongoing efforts across the military services and components to develop hypersonic technologies. Hypersonic missiles are able to reach speeds greater than Mach 5 and are highly maneuverable in-flight, making it difficult for traditional air defense systems to intercept them.

However, a limited amount of adequate testing infrastructure has hindered overall development and delayed fielding for several hypersonics programs.

Previously, Kratos served as a subcontractor for the initial MACH-TB 1.0 program. The company also announced it successfully flew its Erinyes test vehicle for the Missile Defense Agency’s first Hypersonic Testbed (HTB-1) experimental mission last year.

“Kratos is honored to receive the largest contract award in our company’s history, a testament of the value Kratos’ employees and team bring both to our Company and United States National Security,” Eric DeMarco, president and CEO of Kratos Defense and Security Solutions, said in a statement. “This programmatic milestone underscores our unwavering commitment to making upfront investments for rapidly developing, and being first to market with affordable, mission-critical solutions that meet the evolving needs of the warfighter.”