- Kratos received a $68.3 million contract to build a hypersonic materials testing facility under the Department of War’s industrial base program.
- The facility will feature a 20–25 MW arc jet and a 200 kW fiber laser to evaluate thermal protection systems.
Kratos Defense & Security Solutions has been awarded a $68.3 million contract under the Department of War’s Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment Program to design and construct a next-generation facility for testing hypersonic materials, the company announced Thursday.
The new facility—internally known as Project Helios—will feature a mid-tier arc jet system coupled with a high-powered fiber laser to test thermal protection systems for hypersonic and strategic weapons programs. Kratos says the project will help address a critical gap in the U.S. defense industrial base by easing pressure on existing government testing infrastructure.
In a statement, Kratos President and CEO Eric DeMarco said, “This new facility will provide a vital capability for advancing hypersonic technology development while alleviating the current testing bottleneck at existing facilities.” He added, “Kratos will offer more cost-effective and readily available testing options, with Kratos also helping accelerate the development of critical defense technologies.”
The Project Helios facility will combine a 20–25 megawatt arc jet system with a 200-kilowatt fiber laser, allowing for high-fidelity evaluation of heat-resistant materials in extreme environments. These materials are critical to the performance of next-generation hypersonic vehicles, which must survive temperatures exceeding 2,000 degrees Celsius during sustained high-speed flight through the atmosphere.
The system is intended to serve as a bridge between low-fidelity lab testing—common across commercial and academic research—and large-scale government arc jet installations, which are often oversubscribed and costly. According to Kratos, the facility will support all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces and Department of War, while also providing industry-wide access for defense programs requiring hypersonic-grade material testing.
Dave Carter, President of Kratos Defense and Rocket Support Services, said the company remains focused on affordability, innovation, and readiness. “Kratos continues to serve as a cornerstone of affordability, low cost, innovation and readiness in the national defense community,” Carter said. “This facility underscores our dedication to proactively address high-priority defense requirements.”
Ben Dempsey, Vice President of Programs at Kratos SRE, emphasized the company’s longstanding experience in high-temperature materials testing. “The team at Kratos SRE has a history of evaluating high-temperature materials that spans over 80 years,” Dempsey said. He noted that Kratos will work closely with facility design teams at North Wind and New Horizon 5 to deliver the capability to the defense sector.
The project is expected to support national defense objectives by accelerating the development of critical materials, reducing testing costs, and expanding throughput capacity for hypersonic systems under development. Once complete, it will serve as a critical link in the U.S. testing ecosystem, where existing infrastructure has struggled to meet growing demand from multiple hypersonic programs.
Kratos framed the contract as a long-term investment that aligns with its broader strategy to deliver mission-critical capabilities to the U.S. defense community while generating sustained value for its stakeholders. The company says demand for hypersonic testing capacity is expected to grow for decades as the U.S. and allied nations expand their next-generation weapons programs.