Stratolaunch partners with Dynetics for Navy MACH-TB hypersonic testbed

Stratolaunch, LLC is pleased to announce they have been added as a partner to the Multiservice Advanced Capability Test Bed (MACH-TB) project awarded by Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC), Crane Division through the Strategic and Spectrum Missions Advanced Resilient Trusted Systems (S²MARTS)Other Transaction Agreement (OTA).

One of the key innovations of the NSWC Crane MACH-TB initiative focuses on supporting hypersonic programs through opportunities to flight test technologies with robust, agile, and modular approaches. The Dynetics-led team will demonstrate ways to affordably prototype a testbed that leverages commercial launch vehicles, including Stratolaunch's Talon-A vehicle, for flight testing hypersonic payloads. The data collected will provide insight to the DoD on technology improvement and capability validation. Early, affordable, and regular hypersonic flight testing leads to robust and successful developments of hypersonic weapon systems.

Stratolaunch's Talon-A, a reusable autonomous hypersonic testbed, will operate as a high-cadence, high-speed testbed to advance the MACH-TB program development. Stratolaunch's hypersonic flight test service directly complements the goals of MACH-TB.

"We're excited for the opportunity for Talon-A flights to be integrated into the MACH-TB program as part of the Dynetics team. We look forward to providing flight test opportunities needed to advance hypersonics systems development for the services," said Dr. Zachary Krevor, Chief Executive Officer for Stratolaunch. "This partnership will accelerate the frequency of testing that is imperative to reducing the risk of hypersonic system technology development."