The Air Force has canceled plans to purchase an embattled hypersonic missile after a prototype failed the latest test, the service’s top official for acquisition and technology told Congress on Tuesday.
The Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) achieved its first successful test in December, bolstering Pentagon hopes it could serve as the U.S. first hypersonic weapon and enhance competition with adversaries, which are building up their arsenals, according to Breaking Defense. However, Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall disclosed Tuesday that a test launch of the prototype weapon failed earlier, darkening prospects the program could ever produce an operational weapon, Breaking Defense reported.
The Air Force “does not currently intend to pursue follow-on procurement of the ARRW once the prototyping program concludes,” Andrew Hunter, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics, said in a written statement to the House Armed Service’s tactical air and land forces subcommittee.
A B-52 Stratofortress Eglin Air Force Base conducted the latest ARRW test on March 13, according to a press release. While the initial statement published on March 24 merely noted that the operation “met several of the objectives,” it wasn’t until several days later the service disclosed the test had failed due to lack of data collection, according to Breaking Defense.
The service’s budget for fiscal year 2024 request $150 million to continue research and development on the ARRW program to complete a series of test flights, Hunter said. While the service will not move forward with the purchase of Lockheed Martin’s hypersonic weapon, finishing out the tests will “garner the learning and test data that will help inform future hypersonic programs and, potential leave behind capability support,” he added.
Lockheed Martin “is committed to developing hypersonic technology on an accelerated timeline to meet this critical national security need,” the company told Breaking Defense after Kendall’s testimony.
Kendall said the Air Force could revisit the ARRW in fiscal year 2025, according to Breaking Defense.
“We have two more test articles that we can use,” he said. “We’ll probably have to make a decision on the fate of ARRW after we complete the analysis and hopefully do those two tests.”
The ARRW gained traction in 2022 after a series of early failed evaluations, Breaking Defense reported. Hypersonic missiles are defined by the ability to travel at speeds greater than Mach 5, making it more difficult for adversaries to detect and intercept, and Lockheed designed the ARRW specifically to launch from bombers and strike targets 575 miles away.
The Air Force has a second hypersonic missile program, the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM), that is on a “reasonably successful” path of development, Kendall said, and plans to double down in the coming year, according to Breaking Defense. Air Force budget documents outline $381 million for accelerated prototyping of the HACM.
Other military services are working on their own hypersonic weapons programs. The Navy awarded two contracts to Raytheon and Lockheed on March 27 for initial development of a weapon that can be launched from an aircraft carrier, according to Naval News.
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