, The Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) and the United States Air Force have signed a multi-million dollar agreement to advance research into high speed (hypersonic) flight, the Parliamentary Secretary for Defence, Senator Sandy Macdonald announced today.
Senator Macdonald said the Hypersonic International Flight Research Experimentation (HIFiRE) project, worth more than US$54 million, is one of the largest collaborative ventures to be undertaken between the two nations.
The eight-year program has been established as a Project Arrangement under an existing research and development agreement between Australia and the USA.
The project was launched in Canberra today by Dr. Roger Lough, the Chief Defence Scientist, and the visiting Chief Scientist of the US Air Force, Dr. Mark Lewis.
Hypersonics is the study of velocities greater than five times the speed of sound (Mach 5).
Senator Macdonald said the HIFiRE project will see up to ten hypersonic flight experiments conducted over the next five years at Woomera in South Australia.
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