German startup aims to deliver European hypersonic strike by 2029

PARIS — German startup Hypersonica claimed a “significant” step toward delivering Europe’s first sovereign hypersonic strike capability by 2029, after the company’s first hypersonic test flight in Norway pushed its missile prototype to more than Mach 6 and a range of more than 300 kilometers.

The startup based near Munich plans further test flights to demonstrate advanced flight control at hypersonic speeds and complex maneuverability, it said in a statement on Tuesday . Hypersonica said it’s the first privately funded European defense company to achieve hypersonic flight, until now mostly the domain of government-funded secretive multi-year projects.

Hypersonica says it’s using modular design for quick upgrades and to shorten development cycles to months from years, cutting costs by more than 80% compared to “conventional approaches.”

The U.S. Congressional Budget Office said in a 2023 report that hypersonic missiles could cost a third more than ballistic missiles of the same range with maneuverable warheads.

“We’re working to develop a European sovereign strike system in a time frame and at costs that makes sense for European governments, including those with more constrained defense budgets,” Hypersonica told Defense News in an emailed reply to questions.

“Europe doesn’t have 20 years or billions to spend on developing hypersonic strike,” the company said. “A new kind of tech-development approach is needed, and that’s what we’re bringing with our rapid iterative approach.”

Hypersonic missiles are typically defined as flying faster than five times the speed of sound while remaining maneuverable in the atmosphere. A fundamental technological challenge is the extreme heat generated by their high speed.

France has been working on hypersonic technology since the 1990s and is developing a hypersonic air-launched nuclear missile, the ASN4G. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom in May 2024 picked companies to compete for a seven-year, £1 billion framework to develop sovereign advanced hypersonic missile capabilities.

“As a privately funded startup, our speed from design to the launchpad in just nine months should recalibrate expectations about the costs and time needed to develop this crucial capability,” Hypersonica wrote in a LinkedIn post .

Hypersonica said all systems operated nominally during the test flight on Feb. 3 from the Andøya Space site in northern Norway, with system performance validated at hypersonic speeds down to the subcomponent level. The startup says it uses military-grade components from suppliers.

The test flight yielded “invaluable datasets that will inform the design and development of future high‑speed strike systems and enhance our ability to analyze adversary weapon profiles,” the company said.

With Russia claiming to operate hypersonic weapons, much of the work related to hypersonics at the European level has been focused on countering such threats, including through the Hydis2 and Hydef programs. The European Defence Fund’s work program for 2026 includes €168 million ($200 million) for hypersonic counters and high-end endoatmospheric interception.

Hypersonica raised €23 million in a Series A financing round, the company said in separate statement , led by early-stage investment fund Plural and with participation from Germany’s Federal Agency for Breakthrough Innovation. Existing investors General Catalyst and 201 Ventures also provided fresh funding.

In the U.S., Castelion , a startup founded by former SpaceX executives, has raised more than $450 million to work on what it calls affordable hypersonic weapons.

Hypersonica was founded in December 2023 by Philipp Kerth and Marc Ewenz, two doctoral graduates from the University of Oxford who are now chief executive officer and chief technology officer, respectively. The startup’s goal is to develop hypersonic strike capability by 2029.

Rudy Ruitenberg is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. He started his career at Bloomberg News and has experience reporting on technology, commodity markets and politics.

巴黎——德国初创公司Hypersonica声称，在挪威进行的首次高超音速试飞中，其导弹原型机的速度超过了6马赫，射程超过300公里，该公司朝着在2029年交付欧洲首个自主高超音速打击能力迈出了“重要”一步。

这家位于慕尼黑附近的初创公司周二在一份声明中表示，计划进行更多试飞，以展示其在高超音速飞行下的先进飞行控制和复杂机动能力。Hypersonica公司称，它是首家实现高超音速飞行的欧洲私人投资国防公司，而此前高超音速飞行主要由政府资助的秘密多年项目负责。

Hypersonica 表示，它采用模块化设计，可以快速升级，并将开发周期从数年缩短到数月，与“传统方法”相比，成本降低了 80% 以上。

美国国会预算办公室在 2023 年的一份报告中指出，高超音速导弹的成本可能比射程相同且配备可机动弹头的弹道导弹高出三分之一。

“我们正在努力开发一套欧洲自主打击系统，其时间和成本对于欧洲各国政府来说都是合理的，包括那些国防预算较为紧张的国家，”Hypersonica 在回复《防务新闻》的电子邮件中表示。

该公司表示：“欧洲没有20年的时间或数十亿的资金来研发高超音速打击技术。我们需要一种全新的技术研发方法，而这正是我们通过快速迭代方法所带来的。”

高超音速导弹通常被定义为飞行速度超过音速五倍，同时仍能在大气层内保持机动性的导弹。其面临的一项根本性技术挑战是高速飞行产生的极端高温。

法国自上世纪90年代以来一直在研究高超音速技术，并正在研发一种名为ASN4G的高超音速空射核导弹。与此同时，英国于2024年5月选定多家公司参与竞标一项为期七年、价值10亿英镑的框架协议，旨在发展自主的先进高超音速导弹能力。

“作为一家私人投资的初创公司，我们仅用了九个月就完成了从设计到发布阶段的整个过程，这应该会重新调整人们对开发这项关键能力所需的成本和时间的预期，”Hypersonica 在 LinkedIn 上发帖写道。

Hypersonica公司表示，2月3日从挪威北部安德亚航天中心进行的试飞中，所有系统运行正常，并在超音速飞行下，系统性能已验证至子组件级别。这家初创公司称，其使用的是供应商提供的军用级组件。

该公司表示，此次试飞获得了“宝贵的数据集，这些数据集将为未来高速打击系统的设计和开发提供信息，并增强我们分析敌方武器特征的能力”。

由于俄罗斯声称拥有高超音速武器，欧洲层面与高超音速相关的诸多工作都集中在应对此类威胁上，包括通过Hydis2和Hydef项目。欧洲防务基金2026年的工作计划中包括1.68亿欧元（2亿美元）用于高超音速反制措施和高端大气层内拦截技术。

Hypersonica在另一份声明中表示，该公司已完成2300万欧元的A轮融资，本轮融资由早期投资基金Plural领投，德国联邦突破性创新署也参与了投资。现有投资者General Catalyst和201 Ventures也提供了新的资金。

在美国，由前 SpaceX 高管创立的初创公司 Castelion 已筹集超过 4.5 亿美元，致力于研发其所谓的价格适中的高超音速武器。

Hypersonica由Philipp Kerth和Marc Ewenz于2023年12月创立，两人均毕业于牛津大学，目前分别担任首席执行官和首席技术官。这家初创公司的目标是在2029年前开发出高超音速打击能力。

鲁迪·鲁伊滕贝格是《防务新闻》的欧洲记者。他的职业生涯始于彭博新闻社，拥有报道科技、大宗商品市场和政治方面的经验。