HyperSciences (dba General Hypersonics) Selected as Prime in Latest Round of MDA’s $151B SHIELD IDIQ Awards
Mark Russell, GH CEO & Founder, atop the hypersonic launch vehicle. (NASA Project)
Deep-tech innovator aims to close hypersonic gaps with HAVOK—affordable, reusable hypersonic test beds and launchers without first-stage rocket boosters
SPOKANE, WA, UNITED STATES, January 21, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- HyperSciences, Inc., dba General Hypersonics, is pleased to announce it was awarded a contract for the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract with a ceiling of $151B. This contract encompasses a broad range of work areas that allows for the rapid delivery of innovative capabilities to the warfighter with increased speed and agility.
This award reinforces General Hypersonics’ position in next-generation defense and space launch systems and marks its expanding role in addressing key U.S. hypersonic gaps—including affordability, high launch cadence, rapid turnaround, and scalable architectures for resilient, mission-critical national security and space applications.
General Hypersonics is developing reusable, rocketless launch systems called HAVOK (Hypersonic Accelerator for Versatile Operational Kinetics), designed to enable high-cadence, low-cost hypersonic testing, targets, payload delivery, and other missions. Originally developed for industrial impact-tunneling applications, previously proven through DARPA, the technology has undergone thousands of tests. Today, General Hypersonics is testing HAVOK under a separate U.S. Department of Defense Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II contract and setting speed and mass performance records for the technology. General Hypersonics has also completed launches for NASA under an SBIR Phase I contract. This new Shield contract enables delivery of an expanded range of hypersonic products and services to the MDA.
Unlike traditional systems that rely on expensive first-stage rocket boosters or exotic electro-magnetic systems, HAVOK accelerates payloads out of a launch tube using a mixture of air and clean combustible gases while the tube and internal propulsion system remain stationary on land or at sea. This design supports rapid reloading and repeat launches, eliminates first-stage rocket propellants, and lowers operating costs compared with traditional rocket-boosted systems. HAVOK is purpose-built to operate autonomously from fixed sites or mobile platforms on land or at sea. Its scalable architecture is designed to support a range of tube diameters (50 mm to greater than 1 meter) and heavy payload classes for defense and space applications.
“Our team is excited to support the MDA SHIELD program,” said Mark Russell, CEO and Founder of General Hypersonics. “SHIELD is designed to speed the delivery of innovative capabilities to the warfighter. After years of focused innovation and field testing, we believe HAVOK meets this need. We’ve developed a reusable launch architecture that delivers repeatable, highly affordable hypersonic performance using low-cost gases and off-the-shelf, U.S.-made steel tubes and components. We are proud to have been selected and look forward to supporting the SHIELD program with the latest in affordable, high-flight-rate hypersonics.”
About HyperSciences, Inc. (dba General Hypersonics)
HyperSciences, Inc., dba General Hypersonics Corp. (General Hypersonics) is a U.S. small business technology company headquartered in Spokane, WA, with an office in Austin, TX, developing a dual-use, rocketless, reusable propulsion and launch platform for high-frequency delivery of mission-critical payloads across industrial sectors, national security, and space missions.
Mark Russell
HyperSciences dba General Hypersonics
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