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The US Air Force has picked Raytheon Missiles & Defense and Northrop Grumman to build the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM), developed alongside the Southern Cross Integrated Flight Research Experiment, a joint US–Australia collaboration.
Under the contract, the Raytheon–Northrop team will deliver operationally ready HACM rounds to the USAF. The missile uses a scramjet engine that compresses air at very high speed for combustion, allowing sustained flight at hypersonic velocities (Mach 5+). That speed shortens flight time and complicates enemy defences’ ability to intercept it.
“Raytheon Missiles & Defense continues to be at the forefront of hypersonic weapon and air-breathing technology development,” said Wes Kremer, president of Raytheon Missiles & Defense. “With advanced threats emerging around the globe, the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile will provide our warfighters a much-needed capability.”
Mary Petryszyn, corporate vice-president and president of Northrop Grumman Defence Systems, said the weapon represented “a new class of strategically important weapons for the US military” and hailed Northrop’s scramjet work as ushering in “a new era for faster, more survivable and highly capable weapons”.
Raytheon and Northrop Grumman have partnered since 2019 to fit Northrop’s scramjet engines to Raytheon’s air-breathing hypersonic designs, a collaboration which they said will produce the next generation of tactical missile systems.
The program aims to field a fast, precise and difficult-to-intercept strike option capable of hitting high-value or time-sensitive targets at long range.
Unlike ballistic hypersonic systems, the HACM is launched from a fighter or bomber and powered by a scramjet engine that sustains speeds above Mach 5 while flying at low altitude and along unpredictable trajectories.
That combination of speed, manoeuvrability and air-breathing propulsion gives the HACM the ability to outpace and outmanoeuvre most current air defence systems, offering a potent new strike capability for the US and potentially Australia in the future.
