US, Australia Launch New Effort To Develop 'Air Breathing' Hypersonics - Pentagon

The US and Australian defense establishments have initiated a new technological partnership to accelerate the development of jet-powered, or "air-breathing" hypersonic vehicles, the Department of Defense announced in a press release on Monday

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 30th November, 2020) The US and Australian defense establishments have initiated a new technological partnership to accelerate the development of jet-powered, or "air-breathing" hypersonic vehicles, the Department of Defense announced in a press release on Monday.

"Today, the US Department of Defense and the Australian Department of Defense announced a bilateral effort to advance the development of air-breathing hypersonic technologies," the release said.

The new initiative is called the Southern Cross Integrated Flight Research Experiment (SCIFiRE) and it is an Allied Prototyping Initiative (API) under the Directorate for Advanced Capabilities within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, the release also said.

The SCIFiRE effort aims to cooperatively advance air-breathing hypersonic technologies into full-size prototypes that are affordable and provide a flexible, long range capability, culminating in flight demonstrations in operationally relevant conditions," the Defense Department added.

The effort will leverage previous US and Australian joint hypersonic activities over the last 15 years in the Hypersonic International Flight Research Experimentation (HIFiRE) program and research efforts involving the US Air Force, US Navy, the Royal Australian Air Force and the Australian Defense Science and Technology Group, according to the release.