DARPA Funds Breakthrough Rotating Detonating Engines

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Rotating detonation engine could be up to 25% more efficient than traditional jet engines. This could make airplanes and missile faster or with longer range. Smaller weapons could reach the same speeds and ranges as today’s missiles. Rotating detonation rocket engines (RDREs) use detonation as the primary means of energy conversion, producing more useful available work compared to equivalent deflagration-based devices; detonation-based combustion is poised to radically improve rocket performance compared to today’s constant pressure engines, producing up to 10% increased thrust. This new propulsion cycle will also reduce thruster size and/or weight, lower injection pressures, and are less susceptible to engine-damaging acoustic instabilities.

Detonation-based engine with supersonic combustion-driven shock waves offers several advantages over traditional rocket systems such as lower injection pressures, a significant size/weight reduction due to the compact combustion zone lower pressure requirements for the gas generator and drive pumps, less susceptibility to acoustic instabilities due to mode locking, and increased specific impulse performance on the order of 10%. Detonation-based rocket engine technology can create new cost-competitive markets that result in considerable savings and accelerate space exploration through versatility in engine thrust scaling and streamlined system integration.

The DARPA Gambit program is focused on developing Rotating Detonation Engines (RDEs) as a new class of propulsion to enable standoff strike of time-critical targets from fourth generation fighters at campaign scale.

On January 25, 2023, NASA reported successfully testing its first full-scale rotating detonation rocket engine (RDRE). The NASA engine produced 4000 lbs of thrust. NASA has stated their intention to create a 10,000 lbs thrust unit as the next research step. The NASA work was published in the


A prototype rotating detonation engine under test at the Marshall Space Flight Center.(NASA)

Raytheon has received a contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop Gambit, an air-breathing propulsion demonstration program that uses a novel rotating detonation engine. This type of engine is more compact, provides a higher efficiency propulsion source than conventional missile propulsion and offers the potential for lower costs.

Gambit is a first-of-its-kind engine development program that could support future weapons systems for multiple military services. The compact nature of the engine and its efficient combustion provide a boost in range and speed relative to current long-range weapons, allowing the ability to quickly respond to advanced threats.

Current propulsion technologies (e.g. conventional rockets, ramjets, and gas-turbine engines) have limitations in maximum range, speed, and/or affordability that hinders their ability to meet the Gambit program objectives. RDEs are more compact than conventional ramjets, which allows them to carry more fuel. Additionally, RDEs are less complex than gas turbine engines. The combination of these two factors enable RDEs to affordably meet the Gambit program objectives.

Gambit will develop and demonstrate RDE technology in a full-scale freejet test. Phase 1 focuses on preliminary design of the freejet test article and substantiating the design with combustor and inlet testing. Phase 2 focuses on detailed design, fabrication, and testing of the freejet test article. Gambit could lay the foundation for future potential prototype weapon development.

2 thoughts on “DARPA Funds Breakthrough Rotating Detonating Engines”

    • There is a YouTuber called I think Integza who had a chance to go to a lab testing this type of engine the first time the tested it it blew the door of the room they fired it for a second

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