United States Air Force Granted Raytheon a Fat $1 Billion Hypersonic Cruise Missile Contract

Weapons manufacturer Raytheon recently hit the jackpot after it beat out fellow rivals Boeing and Lockheed Martin in acquiring a Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM) contract, valued at $985 million, from the United States Air Force.

The Air Force announced the contract assignment on September 24 according to a report by Press TV. It added that the next stage of the program features a “HACM weapon system design, development and initial delivery through the performance of model-based critical design review, qualification, integration, manufacturing and testing.”

If HACM development continues making progress, the weapon could end up becoming the first scramjet-powered, air-launched hypersonic missile to form part of the Air Force’s inventory as early as 2027, peran Air Force press release that was shared by Breaking Defense.

“HACM is a powerful example of developing and integrating combat capabilities alongside our partners from the beginning,” declared Air Force Chief of Staff Genera CQ Brown. “HACM will provide our commanders with tactical flexibility to employ fighters to hold high-value, time-sensitive targets at risk while maintaining bombers for other strategic targets.”

Per the report, the Royal Australian Air Force started to become involved in the missile’s development in 2020 through the Southern Cross Integrated Flight Research Experiment (SCIFiRE) initiative.

This development comes at a time when the US is conspicuously lagging behind China and Russia in terms of the creation and mass production of hypersonic missiles.

For some time, the US Air Force has been interested in the HACM. For its fiscal year 2023 budget submission, the Air Force requested $316.8, which represented an increase of roughly $257 million more than Fiscal Year 2022.

With the Russo-Ukrainian conflict underway, the US military-industrial complex is very much alive and well. The new form of great power competition taking place worldwide is just another justification for the military-industrial complex to continue its massive grift. 

While there is a legitimate role for national defense, it should only be confined to securing the US’s borders and strategically important areas in the Western Hemisphere, any military activity that goes beyond betrays America’s national interests and only enriches defense contractors who don’t care about the wants and needs of Middle Americans. 

An America First regime would do everything possible to limit the influence of the military-industrial complex and subject them to programs that are designed exclusively to bolster America’s immediate defenses

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