The Department of Defense (DoD) today announced the Hypersonic Infrared Target Sensing (HITS) joint-service proposal as the winner of the fiscal year 2025 Applied Research for the Advancement of S&T Priorities (ARAP) Program award competition. The HITS team includes the Naval Research Laboratory, Air Force Research Laboratory, and Missile Defense Agency, led by the Combat Capabilities Development Command Army Research Laboratory (DEVCOM ARL).
This three-year, $45-million project will involve the collaboration of more than 50 federal scientists and engineers across the military service labs.
"Investments into our military labs and facilities are imperative for the DoD to invest in technological solutions that attract and retain the future workforce," said Dr. Aprille Ericsson, the assistant secretary of defense for science and technology and S&T Executive Committee chair, during a check-presentation ceremony at the Pentagon with the HITS team. "The project will also support up to 50 new graduate and postdoctoral researchers on-site or through the labs and their academic partners, growing the DoD's depth in multiple emerging research areas."
The HITS research program will address the challenges of developing infrared seekers for hypersonic weapons. This includes locating targets throughout hypersonic flight, advancing gimbal-free target discrimination in extreme hypersonic turbulence, developing high-temperature infrared materials, and addressing thermal distortion through the seeker window.
With additional participation from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the DEVCOM ARL-led team will build in-house capabilities while partnering with academia, university-affiliated research centers, and industry to execute the multidisciplinary effort, leveraging early laboratory demonstrations from basic research investments.
"Our approach encompasses innovative multi-physics modeling, meta-optical design, advanced fabrication techniques, and infrared optical characterization, with the ultimate goal of improving the precision of these weapons at longer ranges in more agile, lower cost platforms," said Dr. Henry Everitt, senior technologist for optical sciences at DEVCOM ARL and the HITS team lead.
To participate in the annual ARAP award competition, DoD laboratories and centers must submit applied research (BA-2) funding proposals addressing specific technology or capability gaps while enhancing collaboration across the military services and DoD agencies. A proposal must demonstrate a clear pathway from research to product fielding. "The S&T Executive Committee received nine high-quality white paper submissions for this year's competition and narrowed it down to three finalists," said Ericsson.
Each finalist team briefed its full proposal to the executive committee, a defense multi-service, multi-agency group coordinated by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, under which Ericsson's office operates.
"Every team demonstrated tremendous initiative, professionalism, and vision in developing its proposal, proving once again that the dedication and excellence of our defense scientists and engineers are the key ingredients for the ARAP program's success, as it solves challenging problems for the joint collaborative fight," said Ericsson.
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