Today I was given some clarification on one of the applications for hypersonic test beds like HASTE: Threat Representative Systems (TRS). These are test articles (often glide bodies, re-entry vehicles, or scramjet vehicles) built to match the radio signature, flight profile, and performance envelope of foreign weapon systems. The goal is to give U.S. missile defense programs realistic targets when you can't just grab a North Korean Hwasong-8 off the shelf. For example, a boost-glide surrogate might emulate China’s DF-17, offering the same Mach 8+ skip profile and radar or IR signature but built domestically. An air-breathing surrogate could reproduce the altitude and heating signatures of a Russian Zircon for seeker testing, similar to Australia’s HyShot-2 that hit Mach 7.5 between 25 km and 35 km. HASTE’s big advantage is flexibility. It can drop a glide body from 80 km+, hand off a scramjet at high-Mach, or loft a ballistic RV at > 7 km/s, all using the same rocket. 🤔 I wonder if there are any upcoming DoD hypersonic missile defense programs that would necessitate the ability to emulate a large quantity and wide variety of foreign hypersonic weapon systems 🤔 $RKLB