Boeing happens to be working on two hypersonic missile projects that could be adapted to arm a next-generation bomber, noted George Muellner, Boeing’s Advanced Systems president. One is the HyFly, a Navy/DARPA scramjet-powered missile project which will fly in about a year. The other is the X-51, an Air Force project in which a rocket boosts a scramjet to ignition speed. Either could take the “advanced technology demonstrator” route, Muellner said, in which an experimental system is made available for operational use. The Predator and Global Hawk UAVs and the E-8 Joint STARS were all ATDs that became operational systems.
U.S. Southern Command recently announced its first lethal strike on a suspected narco-trafficking vessel in two months, and the first under a newly formed permanent counter-cartel task force. The U.S. is also reportedly planning to transfer MQ-9 drones to Colombia to bolster its counter-cartel efforts.