Kratos Secures $68.3M Contract to Build Advanced Hypersonic Materials Testing Facility

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions has been awarded a $68.3 million contract by the U.S. Department of Defense to develop a state-of-the-art hypersonic materials testing facility in Florida. The center will play a critical role in advancing thermal protection systems and validating materials for next-generation hypersonic weapons under extreme flight conditions.

Strategic Investment in Hypersonics Infrastructure

The contract was awarded by the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Crane Division and supports the Pentagon’s broader effort to accelerate development and deployment of hypersonic technologies across all service branches. The facility will be constructed at the Kratos SRE (Space & Rocketry Engineering) campus in Taylor County, Florida—a region increasingly central to U.S. hypersonics R&D.

According to Kratos, this new center will provide unique capabilities for simulating the extreme thermal and aerodynamic environments experienced by vehicles traveling at speeds above Mach 5. The infrastructure is expected to include high-temperature arc jet test cells, advanced instrumentation suites, and data acquisition systems tailored for rapid iteration of material samples and components.

The investment aligns with ongoing Department of Defense (DoD) priorities under the Joint Hypersonics Transition Office (JHTO), which has emphasized the need for domestic test infrastructure as a bottleneck in fielding operational hypersonic capabilities.

Addressing Thermal Protection System (TPS) Challenges

One of the most significant technical hurdles in hypersonic weapons development is designing reliable Thermal Protection Systems (TPS) that can withstand temperatures exceeding 2000°C during sustained high-speed flight through dense atmosphere layers. TPS failures have been implicated in multiple test anomalies across U.S. Air Force and Navy programs such as ARRW (AGM-183A) and CPS (Conventional Prompt Strike).

The new Kratos facility will enable accelerated testing cycles for ablative coatings, ultra-high temperature ceramics (UHTCs), carbon-carbon composites, and other emerging TPS candidates under controlled conditions that replicate real-world mission profiles. This capability is essential not only for validating survivability but also for ensuring manufacturability and lifecycle performance.

“This test center will help close a critical gap between laboratory-scale materials research and full-system flight testing,” said Eric DeMarco, President & CEO of Kratos. “It will allow our customers to validate designs earlier in the development cycle—reducing risk and cost.”

Integration with Broader U.S. Hypersonics Ecosystem

The Taylor County test site complements other key nodes in the U.S. hypersonics ecosystem including Sandia National Laboratories’ sled track facilities, NASA Langley’s arc jet tunnels, Arnold Engineering Development Complex’s wind tunnels at AEDC-Tullahoma, and Lockheed Martin’s integration centers.

However, many of these existing facilities are oversubscribed or optimized for legacy programs rather than rapid prototyping needs of current DoD initiatives like HACM (Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile), Glide Breaker interceptor concepts, or DARPA’s HAWC/OpFires demonstrators.

• Taylor County site: Focused on material survivability under thermal loads
• AEDC: High-speed wind tunnel validation of aerodynamic performance
• SNL sled tracks: Full-scale impact survivability tests
• Navy SCIFs: Secure integration labs for warhead/avionics packages

This distributed approach reflects DoD’s strategy to build modular capacity across government labs and private industry while avoiding single points of failure or bottlenecks.

Pentagon’s Accelerated Push into Operational Hypersonics

The Kratos award comes amid intensified efforts by the Pentagon to transition from experimental prototypes toward deployable hypersonic strike capabilities within this decade—particularly as peer adversaries like China have already fielded operational platforms such as DF-17 glide vehicles.

The FY2024 National Defense Authorization Act includes over $4 billion earmarked for hypersonics-related RDT&E across Army LRHW (Long Range Hypersonic Weapon), Navy CPS programs aboard Zumwalt-class destroyers, Air Force HACM development with Raytheon/Northrop Grumman teams, as well as classified space-based tracking architectures via SDA/DAFSTO initiatives.

This funding surge has exposed gaps in domestic industrial base capacity—not just in propulsion or guidance—but also in fundamental materials science domains where decades of underinvestment have left few qualified suppliers or scalable testbeds.

Implications for Defense Industrial Base Resilience

The new Florida-based facility represents more than just an R&D asset—it is part of an emerging trend toward re-shoring critical defense manufacturing infrastructure tied to strategic technologies like hypersonics and directed energy weapons.

The Biden administration’s Executive Order 14017 on America’s Supply Chains identified defense-critical minerals processing and specialized ceramics among top vulnerabilities needing urgent remediation through public-private partnerships.

If successful, Kratos’ investment could position it as a Tier-1 supplier not only of UAVs or tactical systems but also high-value components within classified missile programs—potentially competing with incumbents like Aerojet Rocketdyne or RTX subsidiary Collins Aerospace on TPS contracts.

Timeline and Future Expansion Potential

Construction is expected to begin in early 2026 with initial operational capability targeted by late 2027 based on current contracting documents reviewed by MiliVox. The site is designed with scalability in mind—allowing future expansion into propulsion rig testing or subsystem-level validation cells depending on customer demand from DARPA or service labs.

This timeline coincides with several anticipated program milestones including first flight tests of Navy CPS aboard USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000), Army LRHW battery deployments to INDOPACOM AORs, and potential IOC declarations from USAF HACM squadrons post-2028 if current glide path holds steady.

Conclusion: A Strategic Node in America’s Hypersonic Future

The Kratos-led facility marks a significant step toward rebuilding America’s ability to design-test-field advanced aerospace materials at scale—a capability that had atrophied after Cold War-era X-plane programs were mothballed. As competition intensifies with China and Russia over global strike dominance via maneuverable long-range missiles, such investments are no longer optional—they are foundational.