High-Speed Systems Technology Development

Continue critical technology maturation for increased service life of high speed/ hypersonic systems with secondary emphasis on longer range flight and heavier payloads. Activities include: -Assessments for service life and durability of metallic and hybrid vehicle structures, including joint compliance and fatigue life. -Design, modeling, fabrication, and testing of high temperature structural materials, subscale and full-scale airframe structural components. -Reduced order model development and validation and advanced test data analysis to be included in structural digital engineering tools and frameworks to support airworthiness certification. Continue development of high-speed system concepts. Activities include: -Flight research concepts; high-speed system design, analysis, development; technology assessments; and advanced fuels development, characterization, and modeling. Continue efforts to characterize high-speed vehicle system phenomena, develop and validate fundamental high-speed component technologies. Activities include: -Computational analysis, development of supercomputing-enabled capabilities to empower higher-fidelity modeling and trade studies of high-speed systems, and ground/flight testing. Continue critical technology maturation for high speed/ hypersonic systems with primary emphasis on affordable, durable, survivable platforms/systems, including validated modeling, simulation, and analysis (MS&A), mission system integration, operability and performance over expanded mission requirements, vehicle durability, and vehicle- level thermal management. Activities include: -Development of service life predictions for reusable vehicles, identification of critical design features, and development of state-of-the-art digital MS&A employing new data and methods from other activities within this project. -Modeling and experimental validation of service life predictions for multi-Mach vehicles, identification of critical design features, and development of state-of-the-art digital engineering datasets and models. -Studies of low-speed performance, configuration trades, and data collection on high-speed platforms operating outside of cruise conditions, specifically addressing configuration aerodynamics, high-lift configurations, and stability and control for future high-speed/hypersonic platforms. Continue development of high-speed system concepts that provide revolutionary capabilities through configuration research. Activities include: -High-fidelity military utility assessments through mission effectiveness, campaign analyses, and wargames employing new data and methods from research activities. Continue efforts to characterize high-speed aeromechanics (fluid-structure interaction) phenomena and develop and validate fundamental high-speed component technologies. Activities include: -Development and evaluation of optical flow diagnostic techniques, computational, and ground test of fluid structure interactions on relevant geometries for high-speed operations and flight control. Continue research on technologies required to close the kill chain using weapons released from a high-speed platform. Activities include: -High-fidelity modeling and testing to improve aperture performance in high-speed thermal environments, ensuring efficient and reliable platform/weapon sensor operation, advancing cavity-sealing approaches required for affordable reusable and durable systems, and refining post-dispense weapon control, attributes, and releasing methods to enhance high-speed weapon system performance. In FY 2027, the funding and technical activities from High-Speed Vehicle Aeromechanics Technology Development were realigned to High-Speed Systems Technology Development effort within this Project: Complete critical vehicle aeromechanics and integration technology maturation for high speed/ hypersonic systems with primary emphasis on durable, survivable platforms/systems, including validated MS&A techniques, mission system integration, operability and performance over expanded mission requirements, vehicle durability, and vehicle-level thermal management. Activities include: -Identification of critical design features for global response using MS&A and building increasingly accurate state-of-the-art digital engineering datasets and models. Continue development of multi-disciplinary design and analysis techniques and tools with emphasis on the digital engineering environment for system-level design. Activities include: -Executing detailed trade-off studies and high-fidelity digital modeling to assess how vehicle geometry, trajectory, and mission performance influence high-speed system efficiency, operability, affordability, and reusability. Continue investigation of advanced technologies to extend system range through improvement of system lift/drag ratio and maintain robust stability and control at all flight conditions. Activities include: -Ground tests to validate analytical studies of advanced control-surface concepts and assess how thermal deformation affects high-speed controllability to support durable, affordable, and reusable high-speed vehicle designs.

FY 2027 funding increased by $43.602 million due to the transfer of the High-Speed Vehicle Aeromechanics Technology Development effort and associated funding within this Project; and increased emphasis on component and integrated system ground tests to enable affordable, exquisite, and reusable hypersonic capabilities.