Industry Report Warns Of Limitations On Hypersonic Supply Base

The U.S. hypersonic industrial base is not large enough to produce the number of weapons the Pentagon would need in a future war, and the Defense Department needs to show a strong enough demand signal to allow industry to get there, a top lobbying group argues in a new report.

The National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) released a report May 11 outlining the needs of the industrial base, which all come down to demand. There has been a series of hypersonic programs in recent years, but they have not yet transitioned to a program of record with the funding needed to enable production.