DOD Hyper-AMPD! prize challenge awards $1 million

The Department of Defense announced the conclusion of the Hypersonic Accelerated Manufactured Prototype Demonstration (Hyper-AMPD!) prize challenge with awards to Castelion Corporation (El Segundo, California) and Specter Aerospace (Cambridge, Massachusetts) for novel concepts for the rapid delivery of hypersonic prototypes.

Sponsored by the Joint Hypersonics Transition Office (JHTO) within the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Science and Technology, Hyper-AMPD! is pursuing ideas and options to lower the costs of hypersonic weapons, which offer warfighters many advantages over traditional systems. The two-phase project challenged industry to devise a solution for the timely delivery of a hypersonic system prototype, then propose a path to affordable manufacturing of the prototype at scale.

In Phase I, JHTO selected five awardees based on white papers demonstrating promising concepts for a prototype that can efficiently transition to integrate with existing DOD platforms. Awards from Phase I totaled $500,000. In Phase II, JHTO invited the five teams to complete feasibility studies on their low-cost concepts. Two winners were selected for final awards of $250,000 each.

"The Hyper-AMPD! Challenge succeeded in reaching across the nation to draw participation from industry's best and brightest, with over 40 companies competing to deliver feasible, near-term concepts that address weapon system affordability," says JHTO Director Mark Glenn.

"We received several innovative and novel approaches from industry, including multiple non-traditional defense contractors, which made selecting the winners a difficult job, especially for the second phase of the challenge," says Glenn. "We want to thank everyone who participated in this challenge for sharing their ideas and concepts to support our warfighters."