Air Force Pushes Ahead with 2 Hypersonic Missile Programs By John A. Tirpak The Air Force’s Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM) is delayed and may significantly overrun its expected cost, which could partially explain why the service is reviving the...
ARRW
By the time the 2026 defense budget request arrived on Capitol Hill in June, Congress was closing in on passage of the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act, a massive tax-and-spending bill that included some $150 billion for defense. The budget reconciliation measure narrowly passed the ...
New B-1 Pylon Creates ‘Hypersonic Testbed’ By John A. Tirpak The Air Force has begun using a new Boeing pylon to test a variety of weapons on the B-1 Lancer, the 412th Test Wing announced in August, and now has a...
The Air Force may have just flown the last test of the AGM-183A Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon, its only hypersonic missile that may be ready for production. The Air Force zeroed the program in fiscal 2025, but won't say if the project is over.
A flight test of an AGM-183A hypersonic missile over the central Pacific Ocean is expected at any moment, based on navigational warnings and movements of tracking aircraft to the Kwajalein Atoll area. The test may be the last for the ARRW, which the Air Force ...
Congress is mandating biennial updates on the Pentagon’s strategy for developing, buying, and fielding offensive and defensive hypersonic systems, according to the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, which is poised to pass both chambers this week. They also want a plan identifying overland test ranges ...
The Air Force conducted another test of the AGM-183 Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) hypersonic missile on Oct. 12, but the service is once again withholding most details. The test “focused on the ARRW’s end-to-end performance,” according to an Air Force release, although that release ...
The Air Force announced it conducted another test of the AGM-183 Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) hypersonic missile on Aug. 19. But while the service said the event provided useful data, it declined to say whether the vehicle hit its planned target and did not ...
Northrop Grumman has opened a new facility in Elkton, Md. to build air-breathing hypersonic engines and other elements of hypersonic missiles.
The Air Force’s primary platform for air attack against the most heavily defended targets will be the sixth-generation B-21 Raider, featuring a degree of stealth “orders of magnitude” stealthier than the B-2A Spirit it will replace.
The Air Force’s ARRW hypersonic missile program will end after another couple of tests, service acquisition executive Andrew Hunter told the House Armed Services Committee. His written testimony affirmed remarks from Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall that the boost-glide ARRW will be supplanted by the ...
While the Air Force released scant details about the latest test of its AGM-183 Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon late last week, Secretary Frank Kendall told a Congressional panel it was “not a success”—and given ARRW’s checkered test history overall, Kendall indicated the service may shift focus ...
