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Hypersonic and High-Cadence Airborne Testing Capabilities (HyCAT)

DIU initiative to expand US hypersonic and high-cadence airborne testing capacity; Starfighters Space participates alongside Innoveering LLC, GE Aerospace, and Spectre Propulsion, offering its F-104 fleet as a test/carrier platform.

DIU launched HyCAT in 2022–2023 to prototype a suite of modern, low-cost, high-cadence, dual-use airborne test platforms for hypersonic systems, addressing what the agency called a national bottleneck: a shortage of affordable, reusable, high-cadence test infrastructure that was slowing evaluation of roughly 70 DoD hypersonics programs. The effort is jointly run with the Pentagon's Test Resource Management Center and the Director of Hypersonics; first contracts were awarded April 2023 to Hypersonix Launch Systems, Fenix Space, and Rocket Lab, with a parallel HyCAT II solicitation later bringing in Hermeus and Innoveering.

Program detail

Agency
Defense Innovation Unit (DIU)
Acronym
HyCAT
Budget
Phase
Prototyping/testing (first contracts awarded April 2023; parallel HyCAT II solicitation ongoing)
Domain
Hypersonic flight test infrastructure

Participants2

Contracts0

No linked records yet.

Frequently asked

What is Hypersonic and High-Cadence Airborne Testing Capabilities (HyCAT)?
DIU launched HyCAT in 2022–2023 to prototype a suite of modern, low-cost, high-cadence, dual-use airborne test platforms for hypersonic systems, addressing what the agency called a national bottleneck: a shortage of affordable, reusable, high-cadence test infrastructure that was slowing evaluation of roughly 70 DoD hypersonics programs. The effort is jointly run with the Pentagon's Test Resource Management Center and the Director of Hypersonics; first contracts were awarded April 2023 to Hypersonix Launch Systems, Fenix Space, and Rocket Lab, with a parallel HyCAT II solicitation later bringing in Hermeus and Innoveering.
Which agency runs Hypersonic and High-Cadence Airborne Testing Capabilities (HyCAT)?
Hypersonic and High-Cadence Airborne Testing Capabilities (HyCAT) is run by Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) and is also known as HyCAT.

Tags

hypersonicdiutesting

Sources & citations3

Each claim links to its underlying source. Confidence reflects how directly the source supports the claim.

  1. 1

    Starfighters Space offers its F-104 fleet as an aerodynamic test platform to support DoD hypersonic testing initiatives including DIU's HyCAT program

    Starfighters Space: Starfighters Space Announces Two New Contracts to Help Provide Critical Research as the USA Ramps Up its Hypersonic Testing and Development Initiatives
    Verified2026-04-30
  2. 2

    DIU awarded first HyCAT contracts to Hypersonix Launch Systems, Fenix Space, and Rocket Lab in April 2023, addressing a national bottleneck in affordable high-cadence hypersonic test infrastructure, in partnership with the Test Resource Management Center.

    Defense Innovation Unit: DIU Awards First Contracts for Prototyping Low-Cost, High-Cadence, Long-Endurance Hypersonic Test Platforms
    Verified2023-04-18
  3. 3

    Hermeus is a HyCAT participant; DIU and Hermeus completed an unmanned stores-separation flight test with Quarterhorse (Mk 2.1) on July 31, 2026.

    Defence Blog: Pentagon's HyCAT program tests one of the fastest aircraft ever built
    Verified2026-07-31