A B-52H Stratofortress takes off from Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., carrying an AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon, or ARRW, May 14, 2022. US Air Force/Matt Williams
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WASHINGTON, July 13 (Reuters) – The United States successfully test-fired two Lockheed Martin Corp hypersonic missiles recently, the Pentagon said on Wednesday, amid growing concerns that Russia and China have had more success developing their own hypersonic weapons.
The U.S. Air Force confirmed it successfully test-fired its Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) booster on Tuesday off the coast of California. Reuters reported on the ARRW test earlier on Wednesday, in which the booster was hoisted up under the wing of a B-52H before it was fired. In previous tests, the weapon did not separate from the aircraft.
“This second successful test demonstrates the ARRW’s ability to reach and sustain operational hypersonic speeds, collect important data for use in further flight tests, and validate safe separation from the aircraft,” Lockheed said in a statement.
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Air Force Brigadier General Heath Collins, program executive director, Armaments Directorate, said: “We have now completed our series of booster tests and are ready to move to full testing later this year.”
“Comprehensive” includes the booster and the warhead.
Hypersonic weapons travel in the upper atmosphere at more than five times the speed of sound, or about 6,200 km (3,853 miles) per hour.
In a separate hypersonic weapon test, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has confirmed that it has successfully conducted the first test of its Operational Fires hypersonic weapon.
The test was conducted at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
The successful tests show progress amid myriad U.S. efforts to develop hypersonic weapons that have in some cases been hampered by failed tests, growing questions about costs and growing concerns that the United States is falling behind in what has become a superpower arms race . Read more
Operational Fires is a ground-launched system that will “quickly and precisely engage critical, time-sensitive targets while penetrating modern enemy air defenses.” DARPA requested and received $45 million for OpFires in fiscal year 2022.
One of Lockheed Martin’s concepts for the DARPA weapon is to use an existing High Mobility Artillery Missile System (HIMARS) launcher, like those sent to Ukraine, to launch the weapon.
These successful tests come after a failed test flight on June 29 of a different type of hypersonic weapon, the Common Hypersonic Glide Body, at the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Hawaii.
Defense contractors hope to benefit from the move to hypersonic weapons not only by building them, but also by developing new detection and striking mechanisms.
Weapons makers such as Lockheed, Northrop Grumman Corp and Raytheon Technologies Corp touted their hypersonic weapons programs to investors as the world’s focus shifted to a new arms race for an emerging class of weapons.
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Reporting by Mike Stone in Washington; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Matthew Lewis
Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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