No Tom Clancy Movie: The MAKO Mach 5 Hypersonic Missile Is Real

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Key Points and Summary: The U.S. military’s new MAKO hypersonic missile is poised to transform air combat tactics. Designed by Lockheed Martin, the MAKO achieves speeds exceeding Mach 5 and can integrate with multiple platforms, including the F-22, F-35, and P-8, as well as bombers.

-Revealed at the 2024 Sea Air Space symposium, the 1,300-pound missile promises unprecedented range, speed, and precision. Digital engineering and open-architecture design allow rapid upgrades, enhancing guidance, propulsion, and targeting capabilities.

-This flexibility reduces costs and ensures the MAKO remains cutting-edge. With its advanced capabilities, MAKO positions the U.S. for dominance in next-generation air combat.

MAKO Hypersonic Missile: Revolutionizing Air Combat for the U.S. Military

The United States Navy and Air Force have fitted a paradigm-changing, air-launched hypersonic missile into a wide range of aircraft, including the  F-22, F-35, and P-8 surveillance planes, to support a new generation of high-speed, air-to-surface attacks on enemy targets at hypersonic speeds. 

The arrival of a weapon named MAKO, after the fastest swimming shark, introduces new tactics and concepts of operation into consideration for future military operations and brings unprecedented speed to various kinds of air attacks. 

The MAKO missile is clearly stated by Lockheed developers and US military personnel to be capable of hypersonic speeds, meaning it will travel at least five times the speed of sound, yet details related to the range, speed, and guidance technology built into the missile are not publicly available for security reasons. 

The US Navy first revealed the weapon at the US Navy League’s Sea Air Space symposium in 2024.

However, few details are available besides the weapon’s basic configuration and mission intent. Lockheed developers have stated that the MAKO weighs 1,300 pounds and fits into an airframe that is 13 inches in diameter.

Developers also say the weapon can integrate into any aircraft with “30-inch lugs,” a specification that means the MAKO could also arm US Air Force bombers.

As many as six MAKO missiles can fit onto a single F-35C. 

The MAKO was initially developed years ago as an offering for the Air Force’s Stand-In Attack Weapon program. However, modifications have since been made to meet a wide range of potential combat applications.

New Attack Methods

The tactical advantages of an air-launched hypersonic weapon, which has been in development and on the radar at the Pentagon for many years, are perhaps far too numerous to cite. The largest margin of difference would most likely pertain to range, speed, and guidance in particular. 

An ability to strike a target at hypersonic speeds is, of course, designed to destroy an enemy faster than any defense or countermeasure can be implemented. An ability to travel at hypersonic speeds may also significantly extend the stand-off range from which attacks can be launched.

This circumstance places the attacking aircraft further away from enemy fire. 

Along with speed and range, precision guidance would also be critical to a weapon of this kind to optimize the advantages of an ability to attack at much faster speeds. 

Digital Engineering 

Lockheed, the developers of the MAKO, cite cost and technological advantages associated with the weapon due in large measure to the use of open-architecture technical standards and digital engineering developmental techniques.

Open-architecture and “modular” weapons development refers to the use of common IP protocol standards to ensure new technologies can quickly integrate into the weapon as they become available through the use of software upgrades and other kinds of technical integration.

The intent is to ensure rapid upgradeability so that new guidance systems, hardening technologies, range capabilities, and even propulsion or “flight trajectory” enhancements can quickly be integrated. 

The most considerable advantage regarding the upgradeability and future performance of the MAKO likely pertains to the use of digital engineering weapons development methods. Computer technology has evolved where design specifics and performance parameters of weapons systems can be precisely replicated using digital simulations.

Digital engineering has been used successfully in various weapons programs, including the Next-Generation Air Dominance effort, B-21, and Sentinel next-generation ICBM. 

Specific enhancements to the weapon can be assessed and integrated using computer simulations. These enhancements include range, precision, guidance, or targeting improvements. This prevents a need to “bend metal” and manufacture specific new technologies for testing before making decisions because performance and integration can be successfully analyzed through a digital process using computer simulations.

Another critical advantage of digital engineering is that it can lower costs by removing the need to manufacture a wide range of new technologies before they can be sufficiently tested and assessed. 

About the Author: Kris Osborn 

Kris Osborn is the Military Technology Editor of 19FortyFive and President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a highly qualified expert in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.