Raytheon, in partnership with Northrop Grumman Corporation, has been selected to develop the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM) for the US Air Force (USAF). 

HACM is a first-of-its-kind weapon developed in conjunction with the Southern Cross Integrated Flight Research Experiment (SCIFiRE), a US and Australia project arrangement.

According to an announcement made by North Grumman, under this contract, the Raytheon and Northrop Grumman team will deliver operationally ready missiles to the USAF.

The Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile is an air-breathing, scramjet-powered munition. Scramjet engines use high vehicle speed to forcibly compress incoming air before combustion, which enables sustained flight at hypersonic speeds – Mach 5 or greater. 

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By travelling at these speeds, hypersonic weapons, like HACM, are able to reach their targets more quickly than similar traditional missiles, allowing them to potentially evade defensive systems. 

Raytheon Technologies and Northrop Grumman have been working together since 2019 to develop, produce and integrate Northrop Grumman’s scramjet engines onto Raytheon’s air-breathing hypersonic weapons. 

Their combined efforts enable both companies to produce hypersonic weapons, the next generation of tactical missile systems.

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