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29 Jan 25. Cummings Aerospace releases its Hellhound for Army competition. Huntsville, Alabama-based Cummings Aerospace is readying its Hellhound for submission to the U.S. Army’s loitering munition competition set to kick off later this year, having recently wrapped up flight tests of its turbo-jet powered, 3D-printed kamikaze drone.
The company took its S3 version of its man-portable loitering munition out to the Pendleton Unmanned Aircraft Systems test range in Oregon this month and was able to verify and validate the system’s performance against the Army’s preliminary Low Altitude Stalking and Striking Ordnance, or LASSO, program requirements, CEO Sheila Cummings told Defense News in a Tuesday interview.
“We were able to successfully demonstrate that we could meet the range requirements for LASSO and then ultimately trying to make sure that we’re exercising the max flight speed and so we achieved that,” Cummings said. “We were also able to successfully integrate an inert warhead and conduct flights with that as well as test other subsystem functionality that are critical to overall system verification and validation.”
Hellhound is unique among loitering munitions because it uses turbojet propulsion which provides increased speed, according to Cummings.
“It also gives you the ability to throttle the engine so it gives you a lot more flexibility in your mission in order to maximize either range or flight time,” Cummings said.
In the tests, the loitering munition, weighing in at less than 25 pounds, flew faster than 350 miles per hour at half throttle while passing distances of 20 kilometers using just 50% of its fuel, according to the company. It performed in wind, snow and very low temperatures.
Hellhound is Cummings Aerospace’s first major end-to-end weapon system it has developed. Cummings is a Native American woman-owned small business founded in 2009 as an aerospace engineering outfit with expertise in design, development, production and sustainment of capabilities like missiles, radars and command-and-control system technologies.
Loitering munitions are proving their might on the battlefield, proliferating in places like Ukraine as troops there continue to fight off the Russian invasion, and the Army is developing a structured way to continue to procure a stream of highly capable loitering munitions in its inventory. In particular, the Army plans to enable its Infantry Brigade Combat Teams with the capability to provide the same lethality in this space as Armored BCTs.
In early January, the Army posted a notice on the federal business opportunities website Sam.gov stating it had released controlled but unclassified information outlining the objectives of the LASSO program.
While the objectives are not public, the notice emphasized the need for industry offerings to be compliant with the service’s modular and open systems architecture.
“The compliance with modular open systems architecture standards is another key element of our design,” Cummings said. “That’s actually been a key enabler for us to rapidly conduct design iterations throughout its development, so we’re [using] very rapid design cycles using the 3D printing technology, we can produce new vehicles very quickly and take them out for test[ing].”
Cummings Aerospace plans to submit its offering to the Army’s competition to procure loitering munitions when the service is expected to release a formal request for proposals in the May or June timeframe.
How quickly the Army plans to move forward with the program and how many vendors it might select for demonstration or evaluation has yet to be announced publicly, but the pool would likely include loitering munitions makers like Aerovironment — the manufacturer of the Switchblade deployed in Ukraine — and Anduril, which recently went under contract with the Marine Corps to supply it with its Bolt loitering munition.
Cummings also has its eye on other programs where Hellhound might fit to include the Army’s short-range Launched Effects program. The company is working on concepts where the launch canister can be integrated onto a ground vehicle or from an air platform, Cummings said.
“We’re poised with an incredible solution,” she said, “and the corporate facilities infrastructure to support the follow-on production program.”
Cummings Aerospace releases its Hellhound for Army competition
Cummings Aerospace has conducted flight tests of its Hellhound loitering munition that validates the technology is ready to submit to an Army competition this year. (Rendering courtesy of Cummings Aerospace)
Huntsville, Alabama-based Cummings Aerospace is readying its Hellhound for submission to the U.S. Army’s loitering munition competition set to kick off later this year, having recently wrapped up flight tests of its turbo-jet powered, 3D-printed kamikaze drone.
The company took its S3 version of its man-portable loitering munition out to the Pendleton Unmanned Aircraft Systems test range in Oregon this month and was able to verify and validate the system’s performance against the Army’s preliminary Low Altitude Stalking and Striking Ordnance, or LASSO, program requirements, CEO Sheila Cummings told Defense News in a Tuesday interview.
“We were able to successfully demonstrate that we could meet the range requirements for LASSO and then ultimately trying to make sure that we’re exercising the max flight speed and so we achieved that,” Cummings said. “We were also able to successfully integrate an inert warhead and conduct flights with that as well as test other subsystem functionality that are critical to overall system verification and validation.”
Hellhound is unique among loitering munitions because it uses turbojet propulsion which provides increased speed, according to Cummings.
“It also gives you the ability to throttle the engine so it gives you a lot more flexibility in your mission in order to maximize either range or flight time,” Cummings said.
In the tests, the loitering munition, weighing in at less than 25 pounds, flew faster than 350 miles per hour at half throttle while passing distances of 20 kilometers using just 50% of its fuel, according to the company. It performed in wind, snow and very low temperatures.
Hellhound is Cummings Aerospace’s first major end-to-end weapon system it has developed. Cummings is a Native American woman-owned small business founded in 2009 as an aerospace engineering outfit with expertise in design, development, production and sustainment of capabilities like missiles, radars and command-and-control system technologies.
Loitering munitions are proving their might on the battlefield, proliferating in places like Ukraine as troops there continue to fight off the Russian invasion, and the Army is developing a structured way to continue to procure a stream of highly capable loitering munitions in its inventory. In particular, the Army plans to enable its Infantry Brigade Combat Teams with the capability to provide the same lethality in this space as Armored BCTs.
In early January, the Army posted a notice on the federal business opportunities website Sam.gov stating it had released controlled but unclassified information outlining the objectives of the LASSO program.
While the objectives are not public, the notice emphasized the need for industry offerings to be compliant with the service’s modular and open systems architecture.
“The compliance with modular open systems architecture standards is another key element of our design,” Cummings said. “That’s actually been a key enabler for us to rapidly conduct design iterations throughout its development, so we’re [using] very rapid design cycles using the 3D printing technology, we can produce new vehicles very quickly and take them out for test[ing].”
Cummings Aerospace plans to submit its offering to the Army’s competition to procure loitering munitions when the service is expected to release a formal request for proposals in the May or June timeframe.
How quickly the Army plans to move forward with the program and how many vendors it might select for demonstration or evaluation has yet to be announced publicly, but the pool would likely include loitering munitions makers like Aerovironment — the manufacturer of the Switchblade deployed in Ukraine — and Anduril, which recently went under contract with the Marine Corps to supply it with its Bolt loitering munition.
Cummings also has its eye on other programs where Hellhound might fit to include the Army’s short-range Launched Effects program. The company is working on concepts where the launch canister can be integrated onto a ground vehicle or from an air platform, Cummings said.
“We’re poised with an incredible solution,” she said, “and the corporate facilities infrastructure to support the follow-on production program.” (Source: Google/Defense News)
30 Jan 25. Donald Trump this week ordered work on the most ambitious missile shield in US history, one designed to destroy hypersonic missiles and prevent nuclear annihilation. The US president dubbed it the “Iron Dome for America” — a nod to Israel’s renowned air defence system. But the vision for Trump’s next-generation system, including space-based lasers, is actually much closer to Ronald Reagan’s so-called Star Wars programme, launched in 1983 at the height of the cold war. Developing a kind of Star Wars 2.0 would cost hundreds of bns of dollars. The technological challenges it faces are immense. Nuclear experts also warned the initiative could provoke China and Russia to take countermeasures that would nullify its effects. It is partly why the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists moved its “Doomsday clock” one second closer to midnight this week. What is Trump’s plan for a missile shield? The US president’s executive order, signed on Monday, gives defence secretary Pete Hegseth 60 days to flesh out a plan to defend the US against ballistic, hypersonic and advanced cruise missile attack. Trump’s proposed system, outlined in the memo, is comprehensive, extraordinarily expensive and a different order of technical sophistication from Israel’s Iron Dome. That system defends only small areas from short-range, low-flying and non-nuclear missiles. Trump’s initiative seeks to intercept intercontinental ballistic missiles that travel 100 times further and seven times faster. The US is also almost 450 times bigger than Israel. Instead, Trump’s order demands the deployment of “space-based interceptors” — a web of satellites, some equipped with lasers. It then calls for the development of another layer of lower-altitude interceptors if the lasers fail. In addition, it demands “capabilities to defeat missile attacks prior to launch” — in other words, a system that destroys the archer, not just the arrow. Analysts say that a leakproof, space-based missile shield is all but impossible. “There is no magical security blanket,” said Tom Karako, a leading missile expert at the CSIS think-tank in Washington. (Source: FT.com)
27 Jan 25. Supernova wins contract to 3D print military-grade energetics. Supernova Industries Corp has won a contract to 3D print military-grade energetic materials in a pilot program with an eye on bolstering the U.S. defense industrial base.
“Our technology has the potential to overcome the design constraints of conventional manufacturing methods to produce the next generation of military-grade energetic material components, including solid rocket motors (SRMs), explosives and pyrotechnics,” Roger Antunez, the company’s founder and CEO, said in a statement.
Supernova Industries launched Supernova Defense & Space in Austin, Texas, in 2024 to focus on 3D printing military-grade energetic materials.
Military-grade energetic materials “are necessary for the proper functioning of defense systems,” the statement notes. “However, traditional processing techniques limit their potential. Supernova’s new VLM processing techniques will provide key innovations crucial to enhance safety, ensure material consistency, reduce waste stream and unlock new performance capabilities, particularly in applications such as solid rocket motors, bombs, countermeasure flares or bullet grains.”
Supernova has already printed simulant energetic materials, according to the statement, and is now developing the printing of energetic formulas “which will represent a major breakthrough in the field of additive manufacturing,” the company said.
The company has named its proprietary technology “Viscous Lithography Manufacturing,” or VLM, which is an additive manufacturing process using “a transparent film to transfer high viscosity materials onto a build platform, where they are cured by light to form printed parts,” the company explains.
Typical processes need low viscosity resins, the company says, but VLM can use materials of “unlimited viscosity, which enable new formulations such as the high solid-loading used in energetic materials.”
The $2 m subcontract was distributed by the American Center for Manufacturing & Innovation’s Critical Chemicals Pilot Program. The program is funded through a multi-award contract vehicle from the Pentagon’s Information Analysis Center supporting the Defense Department’s Industrial Base Policy Manufacturing Capability Expansions and Investment Prioritization (MCEIP) Pathfinders portfolio, according to a company statement.
The ability to 3D print energetic materials “will enable the production of critical components for weapon systems that are essential for national security,” said Victor Boelscher, federal programs head at ACMI Federal.
“ACMI’s Critical Chemicals Pilot Program is designed to support Defense Industrial Base (DIB) resilience by taking commercial solutions and rapidly adapting them for DOD use,” he added.
The Defense Department has been focused on ensuring the nation has enough explosive materials to keep up with a massive boost in munitions production to replenish stock sent in support of Ukraine – and to ensure the U.S. has what it needs to fight the next wars.
The U.S. Army, for instance, is drastically ramping up its 155mm munitions production to 100,000 per month by the end of 2025. But the biggest concern for the service’s acquisition chief has been securing enough explosives to fill them.
“You have to produce enough explosives – either IMX-104 or TNT – to fill that many shells that fast, and that production capacity does not exist in the United States by itself,” Doug Bush said early in 2024. Bush served as the Army’s acquisition chief under former President Joe Biden. “We’re having to go overseas to allies. Luckily, we have many [that are] highly capable.”
To avoid having to rely on overseas sources, the Army has also turned its attention to rebuilding its own explosives supply in the U.S. — recently awarding a contract to REPKON USA-Defense LLC to design and build a new production facility for explosive material in Graham, Kentucky.
(Source: Defense News)
28 Jan 25. Philippine soldiers to train on US Typhon missile system. Philippine soldiers will train on the U.S. military’s intermediate range missile system during unilateral army drills next month as part of preparations for bigger exercises with U.S. counterparts, a military official said on Tuesday. The Typhon missile system was deployed by U.S. forces to the Philippines in April last year as part of their Balikatan or “shoulder-to-shoulder” military exercises, and has since stayed in the country, angering China which has repeatedly called for its withdrawal. Reuters reported last week the launchers were redeployed to a new location in the Philippines, which officials decline to disclose. Tomahawk cruise missiles used in the launchers are capable of hitting targets in both China and Russia from the Philippines. The SM-6 missiles it also carries can strike air or sea targets more than 200 km (165 miles) away. A platoon of about 20 soldiers from the army artillery regiment will train with the U.S. Army Pacific’s First Multi-Domain Task Force in mid-February, Philippine army spokesperson Louie Dema-ala said. (Source: Reuters)
27 Jan 25. Elbit to develop extended-range Iron Sting, showcases Sling mortar system. Elbit Systems’ Iron Sting guided mortar munition is to see development to increase its range, Janes learnt at Defence iQ’s International Armoured Vehicles (IAV) 2025 conference held under the Chatham House Rule in Farnborough from 21 to 23 January. The ambition is to extend the range of the Iron Sting mortar round up to 15 km from the currently listed 12 km, among other significant planned capabilities.
The 120 mm Iron Sting round uses either GPS or a semi-active laser homing (SALH) seeker for guidance. It can be fired from a range of mortar systems, including those made by Elbit such as Sling, or other systems made by third parties. Janes learnt that the Iron Sting munition is undergoing development in response to feedback from the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
Aside from the aim of increasing its range by 3 km, Janes learnt that Elbit is seeking a spiral development model for the mortar round, commencing in 2025. This includes the ambition to incorporate a rocket motor in the mortar round to provide an even greater range, and the addition of a shaped charge warhead for defeating static and moving armoured vehicles. (Source: Janes)
27 Jan 25. FFG showcases tracked Skyranger concept for the Netherlands. German manufacturer Flensburger Fahrzeugbau Gesellschaft (FFG) showcased a scale model of an air-defence variant of its Armoured Combat Support Vehicle (ACSV) at Defence iQ’s International Armoured Vehicles (IAV) 2025 conference held in Farnborough from 21 to 23 January.
FFG told Janes that the concept is intended for the Netherlands, although further details could not be provided. The Netherlands has already invested into the ACSV platform with a contract of NOK12 bn (USD1.06 bn) signed with Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace for the National Manoeuvre Air Defence Systems (NOMADS). NOMADS is the integration of surveillance radar and a range of missile effectors onto FFG’s ACSV platform.
One significant ACSV design feature is a modularity concept. FFG material on the ACSV details the use of a flatbed on the rear of the vehicle equipped with standard ISO container fittings for both 10 ft and 6.5 ft containers. The same design element can allow FFG-produced modules to be fitted using the same instruments, allowing for the ACSV to change roles with the swapping of mission modules. (Source: Janes)
27 Jan 25. Aselsan proposes new anti-air truck concept, Gürz development ongoing. Aselsan has showcased a scale model of a new air-defence system based on the 35 mm Göker multimission weapon system at Defence iQ’s International Armoured Vehicles (IAV) 2025 conference held in Farnborough from 21 to 23 January.
Onur Can Usanmaz, international business development expert engineer at Aselsan, told Janes the mobile concept uses the Göker turret, which was test-fired in December 2022. The turret utilises an electro-optical sight to track targets, which can range from conventional fixed-wing and rotary aircraft to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or ground targets. It is operated remotely, allowing internal space to be reserved for ammunition plus mechanical and electrical subsystems, and has a maximum elevation/depression of +85°/-15°.
The concept, if developed, could be offered as a lighter alternative to the Gürz, which utilises missiles as well as the same 35 mm cannon, while the Gürz can detect targets independently with its own radar suite. Usanmaz said that the Gürz is still in development and its final armament package is not yet finalised, despite being shown at the World Defense Show (WDS) 2024 in Saudi Arabia with the Hisar-A+, Göksur, and Sungur missiles.
Aselsan outlined its openness to co-operation with platform manufacturers, offering to integrate its turret systems with various chassis. The concept displayed for the truck-based Göker does not show any specific truck type but used a 2×4 or 4×4 setup for the model, a smaller footprint than the 8×8 Gürz. As a concept, these attributes are subject to changes in the future. (Source: Janes)
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About Galvion:
Galvion designs, develops, and delivers mission critical head, face, and torso protective solutions as well as intelligent power and data management systems for the world’s most demanding military and tactical teams. Founded in 2002 as Revision Military, a foundational belief in calculated investment and capability expansion led to a strategic refocus, resulting in the divestiture of the protective eyewear business, along with the Revision name, in 2019. Rebranded as Galvion, the company’s products and technology continue to evolve beyond purely passive protection, focusing instead on active systems that enhance performance and survivability, with an eye to the ever-changing demands of the modern battlefield. Through advanced design, keen end-user insight and intelligent integration, Galvion engineers uniquely customized solutions that go beyond what was once thought possible.
Privately owned with ISO 9001:2015 certified facilities in Vermont, Massachusetts and New Hampshire in the US, Montreal in Canada and Bristol in the UK, Galvion’s team of 400+ employees work proactively to solve the problems left unsolved by others.
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