Overview
- Leidos won a U.S. Army contract worth $2.7 billion to unify core parts of the military’s hypersonic weapon.
- The award combines the Thermal Protection Shield and the Common Hypersonic Glide Body into one effort for a shared missile design.
- Leidos says the work will shift the effort from prototypes to a production-ready phase to support fielding.
- The Navy is deploying the sea-based Conventional Prompt Strike on Zumwalt-class destroyers, while the Army’s Dark Eagle remains in development.
- Leidos has led the heat shield effort since 2021 and the glide body effort since 2019, and a joint Army–Navy test in March at Cape Canaveral was reported as successful.