The Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) and the United States Air Force have signed a multi-million dollar agreement to advance research into high speed (hypersonic) flight, the Parliamentary Secretary for Defence, Senator Sandy Macdonald announced.
Senator Macdonald said the Hypersonic International Flight Research Experimentation (HIFiRE) project, worth more than US$54 million, is one of the largest collaborative ventures to be undertaken between the two nations.
The eight-year program has been established as a Project Arrangement under an existing research and development agreement between Australia and the USA.
The project was launched in Canberra today by Dr. Roger Lough, the Chief Defence Scientist, and the visiting Chief Scientist of the US Air Force, Dr. Mark Lewis.
Hypersonics is the study of velocities greater than five times the speed of sound (Mach 5).
Senator Macdonald said the HIFiRE project will see up to ten hypersonic flight experiments conducted over the next five years at Woomera in South Australia.
"While DSTO will be the Australian lead in this program it will also involve key personnel from both The University of Queensland and the University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy," Senator Macdonald said.
"The United States participation will be led by the US Air Force Research Laboratory, with additional contributions from NASA, US industry and US universities," he added.
Senator Macdonald said hypersonic flight promised to have a significant impact on Defence as well as on international transport and future access to space.
"The Australian Defence Force is developing a high-technology, network-enabled force and its reliance on space is increasing for intelligence gathering, communications and a range of support operations," he said.
"Hypersonics offers low cost methods of transporting payloads into space, using reusable air breathing propulsion systems."
Senator Macdonald said Australia had an extensive team of experienced researchers in hypersonics along with state-of-the-art equipment for simulating velocities up to 50 times the speed of sound.
