Dynetics has won a competition to field a 360-deg., counter-unmanned aircraft system and cruise missile defense system for the U.S. Army.

Stratolaunch has started installing subsystems in the first completed airframe of an initial version of the Talon-A before the start of expendable hypersonic testing early next year, the Mojave, California-based company said.

Integrating hypersonic glide missiles and scramjet-powered cruise missiles on the B-1B fleet is needed to “remain ahead of our strategic competitors,” a U.S. Air Force Global Strike Command spokesman says.

North Korea says that it successfully launched a hypersonic missile, designated Hwasong-8, on the morning of Sept. 28. 

The test by DARPA’s Hypersonic Air-breathings Weapon Concept is a key step on path to fielding a follow-on hypersonic cruise missile by the U.S. and Australian air forces later in this decade. 

Astraius wants to use a Boeing C-17 airlifter to conduct horizontal launch of its Hera II two-stage launch vehicle, which is an adaptation of the Hera target missile used by the U.S. Defense Department to test missile defense systems.

The Joint Counter-small Unmanned Aerial System Office and the U.S. Army’s Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office recently completed a second demonstration of systems that can help counter small drones as the military faces a sense of urgency to stop this threat.

Los Angeles-area Karman Missile & Space Systems, a budding mid-tier supplier to defense primes, has bought Systima Technologies, which is claimed to be one of the few companies worldwide that can integrate energetic and mechanical systems into the structural design of space or hypersonic systems.