Rocket Lab & Aussie Startup Hypersonix Team Up for DIU-Backed, 3D Printed Hypersonic Testbed Trial

Additive Manufacturing (AM) Research just published its latest study, “AM Applications Analysis: Parts Produced 2025-2034,” which AM Research SVP Scott Dunham said includes by far the consultancy’s largest data package ever. One standout tidbit from that giant trove is that, by 2034, AM Research expects rocket engines to be the single largest source of value for AM parts producers.

For that reality to come to fruition, testing of 3D printed engines will have to continue to ramp up well beyond the already quite active pace we’ve seen so far in this decade. The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) is betting that an R&D program the agency began in 2023 will help move AM users in the aerospace sector in that direction.

The DIU’s Hypersonic and High-Cadence Airborne Testing Capabilities (HyCAT) program just performed its first test, in which a testbed made by Australian startup Hypersonix launched on Rocket Lab’s Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron (HASTE). The most noteworthy angle here is Hypersonix’s testbed: the three-meter long DART AE (Additive Engineering), the first wholly 3D printed hypersonic launch platform.

When 3D printing and hypersonic research intersect, the objective is typically to validate a 3D printed engine, like the test flights that Ursa Major has executed in recent years. DIU’s rationale behind the HyCAT program is that, by making the production of test platforms more affordable and speeding up the process, the bottlenecks resultant from limited wind tunnel availability can be alleviated, paving the way to increase testing opportunities for all areas of the hypersonic value chain.

With around 70 different Pentagon-backed hypersonic programs currently in the works, access to low-cost testbeds could make a significant impact on the long-term timeline for the Pentagon’s overall R&D goals. And, as the DIU also points out, the program could provide further confirmation that the department’s shifting acquisition strategy towards bringing in smaller companies outside the traditional defense contracting fold has viability.

In a press release about the DIU’s first test from its HyCAT program in collaboration with Rocket Lab and Hypsersonix, Lt. Col. Nicholas Estep, DIU’s Emerging Technologies Portfolio Director, said, “Accessing the commercial and non-traditional ecosystem is a key enabler to accelerating progress in the hypersonics community of interest, particularly for closing mission timelines and driving towards mass and affordability.”

In addition to creating greater opportunities for testing hypersonic engines, it seems like the DIU is also aiming to bring the same mentality to testing the rest of the hypersonic supply chain that was initially focused on material science and propulsion capabilities. That’s a rather significant endorsement for what AM has brought to the table as a hypersonic engine enabler.

If the DIU’s approach works, it could lead to a step change for AM adoption by contract manufacturers, as demand signals start to drive a need for an entirely new category of 3D printed parts, while also stimulating new demand for hypersonic parts that AM has already demonstrated success at delivering. Finally, the DIU is correct that such a move would be instrumental in helping the Pentagon usher in its transformation on acquisition.

In that vein, a part of the story that shouldn’t go overlooked is that two startups from Oceania partnered with the US military on such a milestone of a project. That emphasizes how the Pentagon’s interest in non-traditional contractors is defined by new geographies as much as it is by enterprise size and distance from the conventional defense sphere.

I think that theme of new geographies is going to become more and more important as the US attempts to revitalize its international alliances for this strange new era we’ve entered. Our historic military partners may indeed come to our assistance as they have in the past, but in return they’re going to demand that we foster their industrial ecosystems, not just our own.

Images courtesy of the DIU