On Monday, March 2, 2026, the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) of the U.S. Department of Defense announced that it had observed the suborbital test of the DART AE (Additive Engineering) hypersonic vehicle technology demonstrator developed by the Australian company Hypersonix. The mission, codenamed Cassowary Vex, took place on February 27 at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia.
Photos: DIU
The scramjet-powered vehicle (supersonic combustion ramjet) reached speeds exceeding Mach 5 (over 6,100 km/h), demonstrating fully stable flight. DART AE is an innovative technology demonstrator and the world’s first hypersonic vehicle featuring a fully 3D-printed additive-manufactured airframe made from high-temperature alloys. The single-use, 3-meter-long vehicle, fueled by gaseous hydrogen, was launched using a modified Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron (HASTE) rocket developed by Rocket Lab (a suborbital version of the Electron rocket), powered by the same Rutherford engines. The upper stage was modified to carry a payload of up to 700 kg.
The rocket enabled the release of the DART AE payload at low altitude, allowing its propulsion system to be tested under real hypersonic flight conditions. During the mission, key telemetry data on propulsion, trajectory, and vehicle performance were collected to validate simulation models. The test was part of the HyCAT (Hypersonic and High-Cadence Airborne Testing Capabilities) program launched by the Defense Innovation Unit in early 2023.
The program is intended to address a bottleneck in hypersonic testing, as the United States is currently developing around 70 programs in this field. Traditional methods, such as wind tunnel testing, are reaching capacity limits; therefore, HyCAT focuses on low-cost, commercial solutions, reducing the time from concept to flight from years to months. The Cassowary Vex mission highlights the benefits of international and commercial partnerships, including cooperation with the Australian start-up Hypersonix, enabling faster and more cost-effective technology deployment. This success is of strategic importance to the United States, which regards hypersonic missiles as one of the key technological areas in its competition with China and Russia.
As Lt. Col. Nicholas Estep, Director of Emerging Technologies at the Defense Innovation Unit, emphasized, access to the commercial ecosystem is critical to accelerating development and achieving scalable production. The mission builds on the earlier Prometheus Run test conducted in November 2025 and aligns with the National Security Strategy of the administration of Donald Trump, which prioritizes investment in advanced military technologies.
The mission name, Cassowary Vex, refers to the cassowary – a large, flightless Australian bird – symbolizing the irony of pushing the boundaries of hypersonic speed in cooperation with an Australian company. As emphasized, the event not only strengthens the United States’ position in the field of hypersonic defense, but also demonstrates the potential of 3D printing and commercial innovation in shortening development cycles for next-generation weapons systems.
The Defense Innovation Unit highlights the pace of the initiative. For example, contracts for Rocket Lab and Hypersonix, awarded on March 3, 2023, began as early as March 14. Another contract for Rocket Lab, known as Mission 1, was awarded on September 29, 2023, and commenced just two months later. The suborbital test was then conducted less than 36 months afterward. Comparable projects of similar complexity previously took eight or more years and relied on traditional procurement methods.
It is also worth noting that in the future Hypersonix plans to develop a new class of autonomous hypersonic vehicles capable of reaching speeds of up to Mach 12.
At 7 p.m. Eastern Time on February 27, DIU's Cassowary Vex mission successfully took flight from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
The mission consisted of a suborbital launch of a fully integrated hypersonic test platform capable of sustained, maneuverable flight at… pic.twitter.com/p1AhhBra9f
— Defense Innovation Unit (@DIU_x) March 2, 2026
See also: