President Joe Biden on Wednesday issued a memo invoking the Defense Production Act to expand domestic production of materials for hypersonic systems.
The memo circulated by the White House, and scheduled to soon hit the Federal Register, calls for the federal government to take action to accelerate and stimulate the production of “airbreathing engines, advanced avionics position navigation and guidance systems, and constituent materials for hypersonic systems,” which Biden calls “essential to the national defense.”
The production of hypersonics has been a top modernization priority for the Pentagon in recent years as it looks to field the new cutting-edge capabilities to keep pace with China. Hypersonics can fly faster than Mach 5, be highly maneuverable against enemy air defenses and quickly attack time-sensitive targets.
