Eighteen teams of universities, national laboratories and companies are set to receive $25.5 million in total grants from the Department of Defense (DOD) to conduct applied research on hypersonic systems.
DOD said Tuesday that it selected proposals from members of the University Consortium for Applied Hypersonics (UCAH) to receive the three-year funds in a push to build new vehicles and weapons that travel faster than the speed of sound.
Participants in the DOD-funded studies will come from 29 universities, three research centers within the Department of Energy laboratory network, 15 private organizations and four foreign academic institutions.
“Each project is led by a UCAH university partner, bringing together expertise from across the nation to tackle tough hypersonic problems," said Gillian Bussey, director of the Pentagon's Joint Hypersonics Transition Office (JHTO).
“These projects allow us to move our capabilities to the next rung up the ladder, and also provide a way to engage students in hypersonic research and connect with industry and the national labs, building the workforce we will need in the future.”
Texas A&M University’s Engineering Experiment Station manages the consortium under a potential five-year, $100 million contract awarded in 2020.