DARPA and US Air Force Award FALCON Phase II Task 2 Contracts

Released on Thursday, August 05, 2004

The US Air Force and DARPA awarded Lockheed-Martin a $8.4 million contract for Other Transaction for prototypes Agreement (OTA) for the second phase of Task 2 of the Falcon program. Task 2 refers to the hypersonic technology vehicle portion of the program.

Lockheed-Martin heads a team made up of Lockheed Space Systems, Lockheed-Martin Missiles and Fire Control, Aerojet, Pyrodyne Inc and Alliant Techsystems GASL.

This team will conduct a six-month Phase IIa preliminary design effort. At the successful conclusion of Phase IIa, Lockheed-Martin will initiate the 30-month Phase IIb completing detailed design, fabrication and flight test of an initial hypersonic technology testbed vehicle. Lockheed-Martin could receive up to an additional $97 million in funding for phase IIb.

The FALCON Task 2 program is aimed at developing and validating, in-flight, hypersonic technologies. These technologies include durable high temperature materials, thermal protection systems, advanced guidance, navigation and control, efficient aerodynamic configurations, and innovative propulsion concepts. The technologies developed in a spiral development fashion will lead to multiple flight demonstrations in FALCON Phase III.