US Air Force Issues RFI for Hypersonic Multi-Mission Air-Breathing Demonstrator Program Written 14 August 2020

FlightGlobal reports that the US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) posted a request for information notice Wednesday regarding the Expendable Hypersonic Multi-Mission Air-Breathing Demonstrator program, also known as Mayhem. Mayhem “would be a competition to design, fabricate and integrate a large cruise missile, says AFRL.” The AFRL said, “The Mayhem System Demonstrator will need to be capable of carrying larger payloads over distances further than current hypersonic capabilities allow. … The payload bay will be modular and capable of carrying or delivering at least three distinct payloads in order to execute multiple government-defined mission sets.” The AFRL “wants the Mayhem System Demonstrator to first take flight within a five-year timeframe, it says.” The Air Force and DARPA “are working on an air-breathing hypersonic cruise missile already”: the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC), which the Air Force has said it plans to flight test in fiscal year 2020.
Full Story (FlightGlobal)