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Hmmmmmmm. Testing of hypersonic weapons possibly the source of the mysterious sonic booms?
Enjoy!

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Raytheon wins $63.3M contract in Tucson for hypersonic weapons programRaytheon Co. in Tucson has won a $63.3 million military contract to continue development work on its hypersonic weapons program.
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Raytheon (NYSE: RTN) has invested more than $100 million in hypersonic technologies for the U.S. Department of Defense, and has a number of hypersonic programs, said Thomas Bussing, vice president of Raytheon Advanced Missile Systems.

This new contract is for the Tactical Boost Glide hypersonic weapons program, a joint effort with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the U.S. Air Force, with most of the work being done in Tucson, Bussing said.

The glider, which is a weapon itself, is boosted above the atmosphere to skip off the upper atmosphere and continue flying at great distances and at speeds greater than Mach 5 until it gets to its target, he said.

“It’s much like a stone on a pond,” Bussing said. “This can get there extremely quickly. Speed helps you from your ability to counter threats.”

This program has been under development for five years. The new contract moves it from the preliminary design review to the critical design review stage, Bussing said, though he added that he couldn’t talk about when the project would be completed.

The hypersonic weapons program helps the U.S. stay competitive since both China and Russia are working on their own hypersonic work, he said.

“Raytheon is very much focused on developing a very capable system that will give our war fighters a competitive edge,” Bussing said.

Hypersonic weapons will enable the U.S. military to engage from longer ranges with shorter response times and enhanced effectiveness compared to current weapon systems, according to Raytheon.

Raytheon has hired several thousand people in the past few years and has hundreds of people working in this hypersonic weapons space, Bussing said.

The Waltham, Massachusetts-based company has close to 700 positions available on its website, with many of those in Tucson.

Raytheon was the 10th busiest company in the state in 2018 for defense contracts, with 714 Department of Defense transactions worth $37.15 billion that year.