This January, the University of Minnesota and St. Paul-based aerospace company North Wind revealed to the Rosemount Planning Commission plans to build the Minnesota Aerospace Complex, an aerospace research facility.

Now, the University may be a key component in an emerging hypersonic arms race.

Though University administration has released few public details about the facility, federal documents and internal communications analyzed by the Minnesota Daily point to the role of the Minnesota Aerospace Complex, or MAC, in advancing U.S. hypersonic weapons development. 

Public records obtained by the Daily suggest University officials reworked a $6 million biennial state budget proposal for hypersonics research, to downplay military applications of the technology. This was to appease a “legislative culture” sensitive to defense activities, according to administrator emails.

The communications also show that some University administrators, weary of public perceptions, worked to frame hypersonic technology as dual-use, with applications beyond military objectives. 

There was internal disagreement about this framing.

In an email to University administrators overseeing the project, Andrew Alleyne, College of Science and Engineering dean, who sat on the Department of the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board for eight years, including as the science and technology committee chair, said during this period, the board determined there was “no really strong commercial case here for hypersonics.”

“Nothing to see here, move along:” University anticipates public sensitivities

Emails between Research and Innovation Office Vice President Shashank Priya and Alleyne show the administration has been vigilant of public sensitivities to University Defense involvement, even before the June Board of Regents protests.  

In one email uncovered by the Daily, Priya told Alleyne the test facility, originally named the Hypersonic Center, was rechristened as the Minnesota Aerospace Complex, to avoid cultural issues.

The emails included early drafts of a biennial budget request to the state of Minnesota for $6 million for a national security and hypersonics initiative, recurring over two years. 

In the initial draft, Alleyne recommended against using the phrase “national security” in the title of the new University research institute working with the MAC. 

“Intentionally, I want to make it generic,” Alleyne wrote. “I do not want to have ‘National Security’ in the title … we just make ourselves a target. A target for activists, for curious people, etc. It’s much better to be generic… ‘nothing to see here, move along’.”

The summary of the finalized proposal, presented to the regents in October 2024 by President Cunningham, referred to the center as the Center for Advanced Science and Engineering. 

“Unfortunately, there really is no dual use for hypersonics.”

In addition to uncertainties about the higher objectives of the MAC, there is dispute about whether the hypersonic technologies pursued by North Wind and the University have utility beyond military application. 

In the April 2024 email thread workshopping a biennial budget request, Priya asked Alleyne to consider adding potential civilian and commercial uses of hypersonics to the proposal. 

“I am guessing the folks working on hypersonics can also help commercial airlines that are developing supersonic technology,” Priya wrote in the email. “This may help in showing dual use of this research.”

“Unfortunately, there really is no dual use for hypersonics,” Alleyne responded in the email.

“We can try to write it in and pull the wool over someone’s eyes, but I’d not be super comfortable with that,” Alleyne said. 

He added, however, some of the digital tools supporting the work could have non-military use including in disaster recovery situations. 

“If we do go for a dual-use angle, something about the digital capabilities would be better than hypersonics per se,” Alleyne said.

Alleyne did not respond to the Daily’s request for comment. 

The biennial request did not ultimately advertise any proposed civilian or commercial applications of the technology. In anticipation of the anti-war protests at the June regents’ meeting, Priya sent a memo to the Board of Regents emphasizing the supposed non-military uses of hypersonics — including emergency medical utility, space access and commercial air travel.

North Wind CEO Arthur Mabbett said he believes Alleyne’s assertions are incorrect, citing what he considers plausible non-military applications of hypersonics. One company approached North Wind with a business case for hypersonic technology for organ donation, which would ostensibly allow organs to be transported from New York to Los Angeles in 15 minutes. 

He also said that the advanced materials developed for hypersonic systems could be applied to energy harvesting and nuclear power plants. 

“I’m shocked that somebody made that [statement], because there is so much dual use technology,” Mabbett said. 

Hypersonic military application in the U.S.

Since WWII, the United States has been intermittently interested in the military applications of hypersonic technology. The latest wave of interest is motivated by a fear that U.S. adversaries are rapidly advancing their own hypersonic arsenals. 

Hypersonic weapons travel and maneuver at hypersonic speeds, speeds at least five times the speed of sound, or Mach 5.

They fall into two broad categories: 

• Hypersonic glide vehicles, which use rockets to reach high altitudes before gliding to their targets.
• Hypersonic cruise missiles are instead propelled by a scramjet, a type of air-breathing jet engine. 

In addition to their speed, proponents of hypersonic missiles cite their maneuverability mid-flight and purported ability to travel undetected by evading terrestrial radar, thus making interception difficult. 

Though traditional intercontinental ballistic missiles travel at even faster speeds — around Mach 19 — they follow predictable, parabolic paths stretching to higher altitudes. 

“The logic goes that when you launch this hypersonic glide vehicle, it doesn’t have to go on the traditional long arching, 30-minute journey that intercontinental ballistic missiles take,” said Shawn Rostker, research analyst with the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. 

Rostker said hypersonic technology advocates suggest onboard sensors and other capabilities will allow these systems to sense and then evade counter defenses.

These weapons have yet to be widely deployed. Several countries, including China, Russia and the United States, have invested in burgeoning hypersonic programs to support their development. 

Rostker said one concern the United States has is that a hypersonic glide vehicle launched from China can travel over the poles, where the U.S. has sensing infrastructure set up to detect intercontinental ballistic missiles.

“But the problem is that these hypersonic glide vehicles fly low enough that they fall outside the range of detection from our early warning satellites,” Rostker said.

While some analysts, including Rostker, are skeptical of the proposed technical advantages of hypersonic weapons compared to traditional weapons systems, the United States has continued to invest in hypersonic research. 

“What I’m observing today is really this narrative that the U.S. has fallen behind the military technological curve,” Rostker said. “This is prompting Congress, and particularly the Pentagon, to significantly ramp up investment today, more so in what are called theater range hypersonic weapons, and these could operate in contested regions like the Indo-Pacific.”

Though the Pentagon’s $3.9 billion FY2026 request for hypersonic research is down from the $6.9 billion FY2025 request, it is still a top priority for the DOD, with the Air Force requesting $378.1 million to potentially acquire its first boost-glide hypersonic vehicle.

As part of this renewed interest, the Pentagon is increasingly pursuing hypersonic research and development projects like the Minnesota Aerospace Complex.

North Wind and the University of Minnesota

Last September, The Army awarded North Wind a flexible contract worth nearly $100 million. As part of the award, North Wind and the University entered a memorandum of understanding, which included the opportunity to collaborate on the design and operation of the MAC facilities. The University would also support the goals of the MAC with their computational expertise in hypersonics. 

One week after the North Wind agreement, the University received a $10.2 million dollar federal contract from the U.S. Army to support the development of computational tools for hypersonic modeling.  

North Wind later acquired 60 acres of UMore Park land from the University for $8.1 million to house the complex. The May Board of Regents approval of the sale of land to North Wind included a provision to circumvent the public sale requirement outlined in the 2015 UMore Park resolution. 

Minnesota Aerospace Complex objectives

University administration has been tight-lipped about the objectives of the MAC, despite the finalization of federal agreements last September. Though internal communications and federal notices examined by the Daily suggest MAC research will support weapons development, North Wind officials are hesitant to acknowledge military applications of hypersonic technology.

The public notice of the agreement between North Wind and the U.S. Army contextualizes the MAC in terms of the United States’ increasing interest in hypersonic systems. 

“The United States (US) has been pursuing the development of hypersonic weapons aggressively for over a decade and, more recently, has initiated programs to develop counter-hypersonic systems including high-speed interceptor technologies,” the notice reads. 

The notice also says, given the outdated hypersonic testing infrastructure in the U.S., the majority of which was designed decades ago, there is a demand for additional and modernized test facilities supporting hypersonic systems and U.S. national security strategy.

The initial solicitation for bids indicated the objective of the project was to “to support Hypersonic Air-breathing, boost-glide & Interceptor System Development,” or in other words, for the development of hypersonic cruise, boost-glide missiles and missile interceptors. 

Mabbett said the language of the agreement summary is considerably broad, and does not necessarily represent the specific objectives of the center. 

The notice, which repeatedly references the complex by name, says “the MAC will provide a prototype hypersonic test complex available to support DoD hypersonic test programs.”

Internal University emails suggest the express purpose of the MAC is to advance the U.S.’s stake in hypersonic weaponry. 

RIO communications director Dan Gilchrist linked an article outlining the U.S.’s struggles to keep up with Chinese and Russian hypersonic weapons development efforts in an email to Computational Hypersonics Research Laboratory principal investigator Graham Candler.  

In response, Candler thanked Gilchrist for sending along the article, saying it was “very useful to him” and “it is exactly what we are working on doing here and in collaboration with North Wind.” 

The first draft of the biennial proposal to the state, authored by CSE Dean Andrew Alleyne, said the Center for Advanced Science and Engineering is designed to develop digital tools that provide the U.S. with a competitive advantage in the Pacific theater. The proposal also said the initial focus will be on hypersonic flight systems.

Alleyne included the following rationale for the project: “If one has hypersonic weapons, such as missiles, one could cause effects faster than the adversary could react, thereby gaining an advantage.” 

RIO Vice President Shashank Priya ultimately recommended Alleyne reframe the proposal to emphasize scientific advancement rather than security applications, as Minnesota legislative culture has been historically apprehensive of defense activities. The finalized proposal made little reference to the military applications of hypersonic technology. 

Mabbett said the majority of work done at North Wind test is commercial, with major clients including Boeing, Rolls Royce and General Electric. He said he does not believe this will change with the construction of the MAC. 

“We don’t test weapon systems, right? There will never be a full-on missile sitting in [the MAC],” Mabbett said. “It’s not safe.” 

When asked whether the technologies developed at MAC would be used in weaponry, Mabbett said, “That is for our customers to decide. It’s not for North Wind [to decide].”

Future of the MAC

Mabbett said North Wind aims to begin work on MAC as soon as possible. Since the land is undeveloped, the team will first have to remediate the ground, reversing environmental damage from UMore Park’s history as a smokeless gunpowder production facility. 

Mabbett said North Wind’s initial plan is to construct three new wind tunnels in the MAC to support hypersonic ground testing for clients.

According to Mabbett, North Wind received an additional $50 million in funding from the state via the Minnesota Forward Fund, which will be primarily used to build MAC infrastructure. He said they are hopeful construction on the initial engineering buildings will be completed in the next couple of years, with the first wind tunnels online by 2027 or 2028.