NSWC Crane and Joint Hypersonics Transition Office Announce Winners in $1M Hypersonics Challenge

NSWC Crane and Joint Hypersonics Transition Office Announce Winners in $1M Hypersonics Challenge

By Emily Gray (ctr), NSWC Crane Corporate Communications

Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division (NSWC Crane) and the Joint Hypersonics Transition Office (JHTO) have announced Specter Aerospace and Castelion Corporation as the winners of the Hypersonic Accelerated Manufactured Prototype Demonstration (Hyper-AMPD) Prize Challenge.

Hyper-AMPD was a two-phase prize challenge sponsored by the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Science and Technology's Joint Hypersonic Transition Office and executed by NSWC Crane. The intent of the prize challenge was to seek out novel solutions to enable the rapid delivery of hypersonic systems. Phase I participants submitted a white paper concept for a low cost, manufacturable hypersonic system to provide an offensive solution for the warfighter. Phase II focused on building a Feasibility Study on concepts submitted during Phase I.

Over the past year, JHTO and NSWC Crane have invested $1M to challenge the hypersonics community to innovate and collaborate on cost effective hypersonic system designs that can be delivered to the Warfighter rapidly. Dr. Sarah Armstrong, Director of JHTO's Systems Engineering Field Activity at NSWC Crane, is excited to see the engagements fostered by this prize challenge, especially with small businesses and nontraditional industry partners.

"The prize challenge authority was an opportunity to use a new method to reach out to the hypersonics community, especially to those with great ideas that may not be part of the current defense industry base," said Dr. Armstrong. "We funded this prize challenge to the maximum amount to show that we are serious about making the best technological investments to advance our country's hypersonic capabilities. We are always seeking real solutions that really work - engineering at its best. I was thrilled to see the creative ideas put forward in this competition and look forward to following the progress of our winners! "

In 2020, NSWC Crane was established as the first JHTO's Systems Engineering Field Activity. According to the Department of Defense news release, JHTO "is responsible for creating strategies and roadmaps to develop hypersonic technologies and transition them to operational capabilities, for coordinating with foreign allies and partners, and for bolstering the hypersonics workforce."

About NSWC Crane | NSWC Crane is a naval laboratory and a field activity of Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) with mission areas in Expeditionary Warfare, Strategic Missions and Electromagnetic Warfare. The warfare center is responsible for multi-domain, multi- spectral, full life cycle support of technologies and systems enhancing capability to today's Warfighter.

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