The test vehicle touched speeds exceeding Mach 6 flew for more than 300 kilometers

Hypersonica describes itself as “the Anglo-German defence and aerospace company building Europe’s sovereign hypersonic strike capability”. The startup is young, having been founded in December 2023 by Philipp Kerth and Marc Ewenz, both doctoral graduates from the University of Oxford who are now Chief Executive Officer and Chief Technology Officer, respectively. Hypersonica GmbH is based in Munich, Germany. In Hypersonica’s words, “our engineering and business teams are spread across our Munich area HQ and our wholly owned subsidiary in London”.

The Company set itself the goal to develop an hypersonic strike capability by 2029.

The Company is (so far) Privately funded, having last raised €23 million through a Series A financing round which saw a leading role played by early-stage investment fund Plural but also the participation of Germany’s Federal Agency for Breakthrough Innovation.

Hypersonica claims to have taken its test vehicle from design to launch pad in the space of 9 months. In their statement they report that the “missile prototype” launched from the Andoya space pad in Norway “accelerated to speeds exceeding Mach 6, with a range of over 300km. Throughout the ascent and subsequent descent through the atmosphere, all systems operated nominally. System performance was successfully validated down to subcomponent level at hypersonic speeds”.

Hypersonica anticipates a phased approach with successive test flights in order to get to a mature system by 2030: having achieved hypersonic flight, they will have to proceed through demonstration of advanced flight control at hypersonic speeds, then complex manoeuvrability, and finally the realization of “full mission” requirements.

Hypersonica openly says it is aiming at NATO requirements for the 2030 and at the UK’s own target of fielding an hypersonic weapon by around 2030 through its 7-year, 1-billion pounds industrial framework, launched in 2024.

The successful test has generated understandable interest and could well lead to funding being provided directly by governments. UK and Germany have notoriously committed last year to a still very nebulous “Deep Precision Strike Capability” which is targeting a 2,000 km range but has no other defined characteristic yet. It’s not clear if it is meant to be a ballistic, cruise or hypersonic missile. It is assumed to be meant for launch from the ground but even that remains unclear.

After the Munich Security conference, the UK MoD wrote in a release on its website that “Britain’s new long-range weapon programme with Germany is progressing rapidly with a new joint study phase about to begin, accelerating both future stealth and hypersonic weapons” and that is the most we know at this stage.

It will be interesting to see if the “joint study phase” ends up involving Hypersonica directly.

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