Lockheed CFO says HCSW termination is part of expected prioritization by military

The termination of the Hypersonic Conventional Strike Weapon program had “nothing to do with our performance” and instead illustrates how the military is starting to prioritize its hypersonic programs, Lockheed Martin's chief financial officer said today.

Speaking at a virtual Goldman Sachs conference, Ken Possenriede noted the company has won six hypersonic programs, including the now-terminated HCSW.

"We were performing flawlessly" on the program, he said. But the military is "prioritizing and necking down."

He noted Lockheed is working on other hypersonic programs, including the Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon and the Tactical Boost Glide effort.

"We're now starting to plan for first-launch critical design reviews, where we'll start to see the customer continue to neck down," he said. "If we're fortunate to have some of these programs go into full-rate production, you're likely going to see these things turn into multibillion-dollar production runs."