Lockheed Martin to build British hypersonic targets

The British Ministry of Defence awarded Lockheed Martin UK a contract worth approximately £20 million for Project Bowline, a program to develop hypersonic target systems for defensive testing. The targets are intended to reproduce relevant aspects of fast, maneuvering threats so that British and allied organizations can evaluate detection, tracking, command-and-control and interceptor performance under representative conditions. The award supports design and development of test equipment rather than the purchase of an operational British hypersonic strike weapon. Detailed target configurations, planned production numbers and flight-test schedules have not been publicly specified, leaving the contract's confirmed scope centered on target development.