ARRW Hypersonic Missile Tested for Final Time. But Is it Really the End?
The Air Force conducted what may be the last test of the AGM-183A Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon on March 17. But the service is being cagey about whether the test was a success.
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| Reagan Test Site near Kwajalein Atoll tracked the flight |
“A B-52H Stratofortress conducted a test of the All-Up-Round AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon” on March 17, local time, at the Reagan Test Site near Kwajalein Atoll, an Air Force spokesperson said. The bomber took off from Andersen Air Force Base, Guam.
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| A B-52H
Stratofortress conducted the final scheduled test of the All-Up-Round AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon |
“This test launched a full prototype operational hypersonic missile and focused on the ARRW’s end-to-end performance,” the spokesperson said. The Air Force “gained valuable insights into the capabilities of this new, cutting-edge technology” from the event, the spokesperson said.
However, the Air Force declined to say what the specific test objectives were or provide details such as length of flight, where it struck the surface, or whether all elements of the launch, separation, and glide sequence happened as expected.
The ARRW is a multi-stage, boost-glide weapon. After separation, a booster—which is adapted from the Army ATACMS missile—accelerates the weapon to hypersonic speed when a clamshell shroud falls away, and the hypersonic glide body then maneuvers to the target.
“This test acquired valuable, unique data, and was intended to further a range of hypersonic programs,” the spokesperson said, likely referencing the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile, or HACM. “We also validated and improved our test and evaluation capabilities for continued development of advanced hypersonic systems.”
Lockheed Martin Missile and Fire Control builds the ARRW. In March 2023, Air Force acquisition chief Andrew Hunter said the missile would not be pursued into production, after the last tests were conducted to wring whatever knowledge could be had from the project. The line item for ARRW was zeroed out in the fiscal year 2025 budget request submitted to Congress last week. Previously, the ARRW had strung together mixed results from testing. The last all-up round tests in fiscal 2023 appear to have been successes.
However, in recent testimony, senior Pentagon leaders have been less definitive about the ARRW’s future. Pentagon acquisition and sustainment chief William LaPlante deferred questions about ARRW production to a closed session during a House Armed Services Committee hearing in February, testifying that “there is a plan—it’s not something we can talk about in this open session.”
Last week, Air Force Lt. Gen. Dale White, principal uniformed deputy to Hunter, told the HASC that future ARRW production decisions “are pending final analysis of all flight test data.”
He said the next event would be “the final test of the all-up round,” with completion by “the end of the second quarter, fiscal year 2024.”
White said the Air Force was shifting near-term missile research to the HACM program and long-term research to reusable hypersonic platforms.
The imminence of the ARRW test has been an open secret since early March, when the Air Force published photos of all-up round No. 5 on a B-52 wing pylon at Andersen, where the service said it was conducting “hypersonic familiarization training” with air and ground crews. Naval surface test monitoring vessels and Missile Defense Agency monitoring aircraft were deployed to the Kwajalein area. The government issued Notice to Airmen warnings of a weapon test launch in the area.
While much of ARRW remains classified, the Air Force has disclosed that Lockheed’s mid-tier acquisition program contract called for a rapid prototyping effort, followed by testing and demonstration of readiness for production, with a number of “leave behind,” operationally-usable assets—leftover missiles—to be produced.
The ARRW’s size requires that it be launched from a bomber, but the HACM will be small enough to be carried by fighter-sized aircraft. Its air-breathing scramjet engine will also give it longer range than ARRW, USAF officials have said.
Though ARRW was zeroed out in fiscal 2025, the Air Force’s budget request calls for $517 million for HACM development in the next fiscal year, and more than $1 billion through 2029, described in budget documents as the development “completion date.” However, its funding profile declines every year of the future-years defense plan, and no long-lead funding in the procurement budget out-years.
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| ARRW launched over the Pacific by B52H taking off from Anderson AFB, Guam |
US Air Force conducts final test of Lockheed’s hypersonic missile
The U.S. Air Force on Sunday carried out what is expected to be the final test of the hypersonic AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon.
The service did not say whether the test was successful.
In a statement to Defense News, an Air Force spokesperson said a B-52H Stratofortress carried out the test of the fully operational ARRW prototype, referred to as an all-up round test, after taking off from Andersen Air Force Base in Guam. The test was carried out at the Reagan Test Site, an Army facility in the Marshall Islands.
The Air Force declined to identify the test’s objectives, but said it “gained valuable insights into the capabilities” of the Lockheed Martin-made hypersonic weapon.
“This test acquired valuable, unique data and was intended to further a range of hypersonic programs,” the spokesperson said. “We also validated and improved our test and evaluation capabilities for continued development of advanced hypersonic systems.”
ARRW is one of the Air Force’s two main programs to develop an air-launched hypersonic weapon that could fly faster than Mach 5 and be highly maneuverable. China and Russia have invested heavily in their own hypersonic weapons, and the Pentagon is under pressure from Congress to show more progress toward fielding the United States’ own capabilities.
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall last year told lawmakers the ARRW program had “struggled” in testing, shortly after a March 2023 test failed.
Air Force officials said earlier this month that ARRW’s upcoming test would be its last, and the service plans to wrap up its rapid prototyping program this year. The service requested no funding to procure ARRW, nor conduct any research and development, in 2025.
Kendall has sounded a more optimistic tone about the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile program, and the fiscal 2025 budget request proposes $517 million to keep developing that program. The HACM weapon, developed by Northrop Grumman and RTX subsidiary Raytheon, is an air-breathing missile that the Air Force said would be smaller than ARRW and able to fly along “vastly different trajectories” than the boost-glide ARRW.
The Air Force assistant secretary for acquisition, technology and logistics told reporters earlier this month that the service will study the results of the final ARRW test to help it decide what hypersonic capabilities it will need.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.
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