WASHINGTON — The Air Force on Saturday conducted its latest test of a prototype hypersonic AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon, collecting data it hopes will help it develop future weapons that may travel at greater than Mach 5.
The Air Force said in a press release that a B-52H Stratofortress released a full operational prototype ARRW, generally known as an all-up round, off the coast of Southern California. ARRW is made by Lockheed Martin.
This ARRW test marked the primary since a failed test of one other operational prototype in March. After an announcement about that test was silent on whether it had achieved its objectives, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall soon afterwards told Congress it was “not successful.” Kendall also told lawmakers the service was more committed to the HACM than ARRW, and that the ARRW’s future is doubtful, with a choice on whether to proceed with this system more likely to come as a part of the fiscal 2025 budget process.
Hypersonic weapons travel at speeds greater than Mach 5, or greater than 3,836 miler per hour, and are highly maneuverable, which makes them difficult to trace and shoot down. Lawmakers have expressed concern that the U.S. military has not done enough to develop and field hypersonic weapons, and that the nation could also be falling behind Chinese and Russian hypersonic capabilities.
The service said it might not discuss specific objectives of the Aug. 19 test, and didn’t say whether it considered the test successful. However the Air Force said it “gained beneficial recent insights into the capabilities” of ARRW, and that the info would help it advance programs reminiscent of ARRW and the service’s other major hypersonic weapon program, the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile.
The Air Force said the test focused on ARRW’s end-to-end performance, and that it also validated and improved the service’s test and evaluation capabilities to proceed to develop advanced hypersonic systems.
In one other March hearing, Air Force acquisition chief Andrew Hunter said the Air Force was still planning to conduct the last two ARRW all-up round test flights to gather data for future hypersonic programs.
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.