The Dark Eagle, Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW), is a road-mobile system capable of striking targets up to 1,700 miles away. Each battery has eight missiles on mobile trucks. This setup allows for quick deployment and fast strikes. The US Military is deploying the first missile battery. The LRHW is a road-mobile and air-transportable weapon system, …
DARPA and the US Air Force have started the High Mach Gas Turbine (HMGT) program to develop reusable hypersonic planes. The core technology revolves around Turbine Based Combined Cycle (TBCC) propulsion systems, which integrate turbine engines for low-to-mid speeds with airbreathing components or hypersonic mach 5+ speeds. Engine Architecture and Subsystems: Development of a complete …
DARPA launched Phase 1 of its Robust Quantum Sensors (RoQS) program, a groundbreaking effort to develop and deploy quantum sensing technology. Quantum sensors offer unmatched precision in detecting magnetic and electric fields, acceleration, rotation, and gravity, but their extraordinary sensitivity has made them notoriously fragile in real-world environments. Phase 1 focuses on two technical areas …
The DARPA Persistent Optical Wireless Energy Relay (POWER) program achieved several new records for transmitting power over distance. The team recorded more than 800 watts of power delivered during a 30-second transmission from a laser 8.6 kilometers (5.3 miles) away. Over the course of the test campaign, more than a megajoule of energy was transferred. …
There have been published papers by the Air Force Research Lab and NASA on rotating detonation engines having 10% or more efficiency gains. A rotating detonation engine (RDE) uses a form of pressure gain combustion, where one or more detonations continuously travel around an annular channel. Computational simulations and experimental results have shown that the …
February 13 2025, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced its secretive Aerospace Projects Office (APO) is developing a large hypersonic bomber prototype as part of the Next Generation Responsive Strike (NextRS) program. The NextRS hypersonic bomber project aims to create a reusable, large-scale platform capable of multi-mission strike and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance …
DARPA is hosting a QBI (Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI)) proposers day on Sept. 3, 2024, for quantum computing companies that believe they are on track to develop an industrial-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computer in the near term. The goal of the hybrid in-person and virtual proposers day is to introduce the quantum computing research and development …
DARPA and Northrop Grumman have made a new drone with X-plane designation XRQ-73. The Series Hybrid Electric Propulsion AiRcraft Demonstration program is known as SHEPARD. SHEPARD is an X-prime program, leveraging the series hybrid electric architecture and some of the component technologies from the earlier AFRL/IARPA Great Horned Owl (GHO) project. “The idea behind a …
Northrop Grumman Corporation completed assembly of a full-size uncrewed underwater vehicle (UUV) prototype known as Manta Ray. A new class of UUV, it is an extra-large glider that will operate long-duration, long-range and payload-capable undersea missions without need for on-site human logistics. The Manta Ray can wait on the seabed to intercept nuclear submarines. DARPA’s …
DARPA’s Air Combat Evolution (ACE) program had the first-ever in-air tests of AI algorithms autonomously flying a fighter jet against a human-piloted fighter jet in within-visual-range combat scenarios (aka dogfighting). The General Dynamics X-62 VISTA (“Variable Stability In-flight Simulator Test Aircraft”) is an experimental aircraft, derived from the F-16D Fighting Falcon, which was modified as …
DARPA will give an information session on the Photon-Efficient Nanoscale Optical Metrology (PhENOM) Disruption Opportunity. Photon-Efficient Nanoscale Optical Metrology (PhENOM), seeks to harness novel light-matter hybrids, such as photonic molecules & photon ‘fluids’ for novel applications. The PhENOM DO will explore and demonstrate disruptive approaches to loss-resilient generation, detection, and information-encoding of quantum correlated states …