““Extensive flight testing is required to protect the sensitive electronics of hypersonic missiles, to learn how materials will perform and predict aerodynamics at temperatures as high as 3,000° Fahrenheit.” This has been the reality that has influenced the hypersonic program of the United States for years: exquisite prototypes, extensive testing, and production plans that find it difficult to keep up with operational requirements. A new acquisition approach is now trying to make hypersonics more of a manufacturing problem than a science project.
The mechanism is the Multi-service Advanced Capability Hypersonic Accelerator, or MACH-XL, and is an effort aimed at identifying prototype missiles over various mission sets air-to-air, air-to-ground, ground-to-ground, and ground-to-air that have the capability to achieve production at an “affordable” scale, provided they have a credible path to production. Instead of waiting for the latest and greatest technologies to reach maturity before trying to scale them, MACH-XL establishes a parallel process that encourages designs from the outset that are amenable to manufacturability, supply chain robustness, and testability. According to program documents, there is a fast-tracked Other Transaction agreement process administered through S²MARTS and managed by Naval Surface Warfare Center-Crane.
MACH-XL’s attractiveness has a structural component. The traditional procurement timelines can be extended, whereas OTAs are designed to accelerate moving from prototypes to flight demonstrations quicker and with less hurdles for companies that do not have extensive experience in defense contracting. This creates an “on-ramp” for non-traditional companies that can inject new thinking, particularly in areas of modularity, commercial manufacturing, and automated integration, into a domain that has traditionally been controlled by a small number of primes.
The initiative also integrates with an existing ecosystem developed by MACH-TB, which has already been employed in the development of hypersonic systems as test vehicles. The combination of the Zeus booster and the Erinyes hypersonic glider by Kratos is one such example of the building block approach that can be employed to increase the rate of iteration: fly, instrument, learn, modify, and fly again. The rate of iteration is a function of capacity as much as it is a function of contracts, and Kratos has been growing its presence to meet this requirement, including a 55,000 square-foot manufacturing and payload integration facility in Princess Anne, Maryland, located close to NASA Wallops.
But what drives the effort is a hard-won experience from the Army’s Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon, now officially named Dark Eagle. The LRHW design is important: it’s a common missile structure, shared with the Navy’s Conventional Prompt Strike, combined with the Common Hypersonic Glide Body. However, the project has also shown the importance of test range availability, sensors, materials, and rework cycles following anomalies. Even after successful end-to-end tests, government reviews have continued to point out data gaps. The GAO’s annual review in June 2025 also pointed out cost increases in the first battery deployment, due to missile costs and testing problems that led to investigations and retests.
MACH-XL does not answer the question of LRHW, CPS, or the Air Force’s follow-on air-breathing programs but instead asks a different question: what can be built in quantity without waiting for the most complex designs to become perfect? The message to industry is clear. Hypersonic performance is still relevant, but in this acquisition category, production reality and learning through flight demonstrations are now seen as equal gatekeepers to contracts.
If hypersonics are to become a sustainable capability, rather than an occasional demonstration, the key engineering advantage may lie not in the glamorous areas, such as propulsion or materials, but in the unglamorous areas of manufacturing engineering, integration workflow, thermal protection repeatability, and test infrastructure, which are being drawn into the center of the conversation.”
