Joint Hypersonic Technology Development &Transition

Joint Hypersonic Technology Development & Transition is a part of the Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Defense-Wide budget activity. The program aims to support the Department's initiatives to build sustainable and long-term advantage and a resilient joint force and defense ecosystem. Specifically, the program focuses on establishing a university consortium for hypersonics research, supporting workforce development, expediting testing, evaluation, and acquisition of hypersonic technologies to meet the needs of the warfighter, ensuring that prototyping demonstration programs on hypersonic systems integrate advanced technologies to speed up the maturation and deployment of future hypersonic systems, developing strategies and roadmaps for hypersonic technologies to enable their transition to future operational capabilities for the warfighter, and implementing a strategy for enhancing the current and future hypersonics workforce.

The Joint Hypersonics Transition Office (JHTO), within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD(R&E)), was created to establish a university consortium for hypersonics research; support workforce development; expedite testing, evaluation, and acquisition of hypersonic technologies to meet the stated needs of the warfighter; ensure that prototyping demonstration programs on hypersonic systems integrate advanced technologies to speed up the maturation and deployment of future hypersonic systems; develop strategies and roadmaps for hypersonic technologies to enable their transition to future operational capabilities for the warfighter; and develop and implement a strategy for enhancing the current and future hypersonics workforce. The program also includes specific projects such as University Consortium for Applied Hypersonics (UCAH), Navigation, Guidance and Controls (NGC) Science and Technology Development, Propulsion Science and Technology Development, Systems Engineering, Design and Analysis (SEDA) Science and Technology Development, Materials, Structures and Manufacturing (MSM) Science and Technology Development, Ordnance Science and Technology Development, Aerodynamics and Aerothermodynamics Science and Technology Development, as well as Tactical High-speed Offensive Ramjet for Extended Range (THOR-ER). These projects are aligned with the jointly-developed Hypersonics S&T Roadmap.