Northrop Grumman awarded contract for DARPA Glide Breaker Program.

Northrop Grumman Systems Corp. has been awarded a $13 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the base period of the DARPA Glide Breaker program, an experimental effort to develop interceptors to take out highly advanced and highly maneuverable hypersonic missiles.

The Glide Breaker program began in 2018 to develop and demonstrate technologies to enable defense against hypersonic systems (Picture source: DARPA)

“The objective of the Glide Breaker program is to further the capability of the United States to defend against supersonic and the entire class of hypersonic threats,” DARPA said in an announcement for the July 2018 Proposers Day. “Of particular interest are component technologies that radically reduce risk for development and integration of an operational, hard-kill system.”

The Glide Breaker program “Intends to advance the United States’  means to counter hypersonic vehicles” by developing the enabling technology critical for an advanced interceptor” that can do the job, DARPA wrote.