Next-Generation Hypersonic Capabilities – European Security & Defence

Hypersonica – an Anglo-German defence and aerospacecompany specialising in developing next-generation hypersonic systems for the civilian and military markets – has conducted a successful first test of its new hypersonic strike missile prototype. The test, which took place at Andøya Space in Norway, and was announced on 10 February, saw the technology demonstrator missile achieve hypersonic flight. This achievement was the first step in a phased approach to developing a manoeuvrable hypersonic strike capability by 2029.

The 2029 timeline is significant. The United Kingdom and NATO have both set out timeframes of 2030 for the fielding of hypersonic capabilities. The UK’s Team Hypersonics programme, for example, is seeking a hypersonic weapon technology demonstrator by 2030. Germany has listed hypersonic systems as a future technology for the Bundeswehr as well.

In Hypersonica’s Andøya test, the prototype strike missile reached a speed exceeding Mach 6 and a range exceeding 300 km. In ascent and descent through the atmosphere, all systems operated in accordance with engineering requirements, with performance at hypersonic speeds validated down to subcomponent level, Hypersonica said.

Prior to the test flight, preparation activities on the technical side included concept, design, procurement, integration, and ground-testing work; and on the commercial side included export control, regulatory, flight safety, and range organisation tasks. Hypersonica said that all elements were completed within nine months.

The company’s approach to developing the concept and the missile capability is based around rapid iteration from design to flight-ready hardware, combining computer simulation, prototyping, and testing, with the benefits of this approach including faster development and upgrade cycles. In addition, compared to conventional approaches, the iterative testing and use of a modular architecture potentially reduce development timeframes from years to months, and can bring down costs by over 80%, Hypersonica said. Here, Hypersonica is seeking to harness an approach pioneered in the space sector, using rapid iteration and testing for increasing complexity while keeping overhead costs down – an approach the sector has also used in production phases. Overall, the company statement noted, “[Our] approach will enable Europe to field hypersonic capability within the timelines of both the NATO and UK 2030 hypersonic frameworks – and at a fraction of the usual expense.” This in turn will allow countries to consider the capability even when faced with increasingly constrained budgets, the company argued.

“Our speed from design to the launchpad in just nine months should recalibrate expectations about the costs and time needed to develop this crucial capability,” Hypersonica’s co-founders Dr Philipp Kerth (chief executive officer) and Dr Marc Ewenz (chief technology officer) explained. Kerth and Ewenz added that the successful test was “a major milestone” on the company’s pathway to developing a hypersonic strike capability by 2029. “Our test flight yielded invaluable datasets that will inform the design and development of future high‑speed strike systems,” they said.

Hypersonica is a privately funded start-up, founded in December 2023 with a headquarters in Munich and a wholly owned subsidiary in London. Its tie-up with Andøya Space was a core component of the test programme’s success. “We are grateful for the expert support and partnership from Andøya Space on this successful mission,” Kerth and Ewenz said. The Norwegian company’s contribution to the mission included provision of launch services and a telemetry downlink, the latter enabling the capture of payload data gathered during the test flight, Kerth explained to European Security & Defence (ESD).

Hypersonica’s integration with Andøya Space for the test mission illustrated its ability to partner with other NATO countries at national and multinational levels.

Strike Requirements

Hypersonica said that its design, development, testing, and data work will enhance countries’ capability to analyse adversary hypersonic weapons system profiles. NATO’s integrated air and missile defence (IAMD) capability development strategy encompasses the need to be able to build layered defence against the full range of air and missile threats, including hypersonic systems. Delivering hypersonic capability has operational significance for NATO member countries. Russia has used hypersonic weapons extensively in its war with Ukraine, launching the Kinzhal (airlaunched), Oreshnik (land-launched), and Tsirkon (sea-launched) systems. China, Iran, and North Korea are also developing and delivering hypersonic weapons.

Russia’s use of hypersonic weapons in its war in Ukraine has proved, so far, to be neither operationally nor strategically ‘game changing’ in the war itself. However, the emergent capability has added complexity to NATO IAMD requirements, in particular the need to accelerate the speed of response in targeting inbound weapons in defensive operations. A new type of weapon system is also simply adding mass to the threat.

In contemporary combat operations, the capacity to deliver effect at speed and scale in offensive outputs is crucial. For NATO countries, in the event of any conflict with a peer competitor, the speeds delivered by hypersonic systems will be critical to overcoming adversaries’ highly capable, massed IAMD networks in offensive operations. Affordable hypersonic weapons will be a central element of the rapidly delivered, massed precision effects NATO forces will need to generate, especially given the increasing conceptual focus on ‘left of launch’, ‘shooting the archer’ approaches – in other words, targeting an adversary’s ballistic, cruise, and hypersonic missile mass before it can be launched.

European Capability

With Hypersonica’s test being successful and precipitating the passing of a significant milestone in the development of what the company called cutting‑edge technology, Kerth and Ewenz said “This is a proud moment for European defence innovation.”

The company is focused on delivering innovation and advanced technology to help drive development of independent European defence capability. Given the importance of hypersonic technologies in contemporary defence capability developments, other European countries and defence industrial players are developing hypersonic systems. Hypersonica believes its technology and its weapons system offer unique capability as a sovereign European defence industrial development. “We will provide hypersonic deep precision strike weapons at affordable cost and with a sovereign production,” Kerth told ESD. “We believe these systems will be a powerful deterrent if procured at scale, which our lower prices will enable.”

Explaining the emphasis on sovereignty, Kerth said “We aim to equip European allies with a sovereign hypersonic strike capability – meaning designed, developed, and produced at scale, ITAR-free within Europe, for independent European operational control.”

As regards the procurement element of the programme’s development process, Kerth said “While no details about partnerships and components can be shared, we can state that not every subcomponent for hypersonic flight vehicles needs to be redeveloped from scratch.” “Most importantly, one needs a very thorough understanding of the hypersonic speed regime to make the right component and design choices,” he added. Here, Kerth explained, Hypersonica can act as a gravitational centre for hypersonics expertise while also drawing on technology developed by other NATO suppliers. Hypersonica prospectively can play a pivotal role in either context. Underscoring the impact of its test in capability development terms, the company’s statement said Hypersonica is “the first privately funded European defence company to achieve this technological milestone”.

Dr Lee Willett

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