Hypersonix additively manufactured scramjet demonstrator in DIU HyCAT test
The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), Mountain View, California, and its partners have completed a suborbital launch of a fully integrated hypersonic test platform capable of sustained, maneuverable flight at speeds exceeding Mach 5. The mission, named Cassowary Vex, took place at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on February 27, 2026.
The launch included Hypersonix’s DART AE (Additive Engineering) payload, a three-meter-long, single-use, high-temperature alloy, gaseous hydrogen-fuelled, scramjet technology demonstrator. Reportedly the world’s first entirely additively manufactured hypersonic launch platform airframe produced in high-temperature alloys, the DART supports mission scalability. The AM structural component designs and manufacturing processes have been developed, tested and verified, enabling the supply chain behind Hypersonix to rapidly produce and deliver DART structural flight components.
Launched in early 2023, DIU’s Hypersonic and High-Cadence Airborne Testing Capabilities (HyCAT) programme is accelerating the development, evaluation, and transition of emerging hypersonic technologies and providers, through low-cost, responsive and long-endurance flight testing.
The Department of Defense is currently advancing 70 hypersonic programmes; however, progress faces a ‘national bottleneck’ due to a lack of affordable, reusable, and high-cadence test platforms. Detailed in a recent report to Congress, wind tunnel testing, while valuable, is reaching capacity, underscoring the urgent need for alternative testing solutions.
HyCAT directly addresses this challenge by prototyping cost-effective, commercially derived airborne testing systems. This enables the rapid evaluation of emerging technologies and accelerates the delivery of advanced capabilities for the warfighter.
Recognising its strategic importance, the DoD designated Scaled Hypersonics (SHY) as one of the six newly refined critical technology areas. This focus, announced on November 17, 2025, by the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering and Chief Technology Officer for the Department of Defense, underscores the vital role hypersonics play in the American military.
The Cassowary Vex Mission architecture integrated two primary elements of the HyCAT programme: air breathing testbeds and commercial suborbital launch systems. This approach successfully demonstrated the ability to deliver a suborbital payload at precise speeds and altitudes, enabling rigorous performance validation in a representative high-dynamic-pressure environment.
The mission leveraged a modified Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron (HASTE) launch vehicle from Rocket Lab. This modification included an extended fairing, a newly prototyped aerodynamic structure to reduce drag, designed with a unique thermal protection and separation system, to enable payload release at low altitudes, a capability unique for air breathing propulsion systems. Additionally, the mission collected critical telemetry on the propulsion system, the flight vehicle, and real-time trajectory data to compare against simulated flight models.
