The acknowledgment is the clearest indication that Mayhem will serve as a testbed for dual-mode or turbine-based combined cycle (TBCC) hypersonic propulsion systems. 

After about a four-month delay because of issues related to the spread of the novel coronavirus, the U.S. Army has completed a successful live-fire test of the Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

The new Mayhem program seeks to create a “larger-scale, expendable, air-breathing, hypersonic, multimission flight demonstrator,” according to an Air Force Research Laboratory request for information published on Aug. 13. 

Defense Secretary Mark Esper has charged Ellen Lord, undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment, with leading a review of certification standards and industrial base gaps.

The U.S. Air Force and Canada have committed to improving the ground-based arctic surveillance system on watch for Russian missiles and bombers.

Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon will compete for the U.S. Air Force's future hypersonic cruise missile program.

A hypersonic glide vehicle program led by DARPA is now combined with the U.S. Air Force's AGM-183A program as the 419th Flight Test Sqdn. completes the last step ahead of powered booster flight tests later this year.

A Purdue University spinoff is to test an improved propellant for solid-fuel ramjet propulsion systems in hypersonic weapons under more than $1.1 million in contracts from the U.S. military.