 |
| Specifications for the US AGM-183A Hypersonic Missile Which has a Speed of 6125 KM/H |
International Military - The United States is a country known for having the strongest military power, one of which is the AGM-183A Hypersonic Missile. The missile is a new lethal weapon for the Air Force. Reporting from space.com, the United States Air Force has successfully tested a hypersonic missile prototype on December 9, 2022 at a training ground off the coast of California.
The AGM-183A hypersonic missile has actually been undergoing flight testing since last April 2021. But the series of tests failed and had to re-update. The AGM-183A missile itself includes a boost-glide vehicle, which is a warhead or projectile that slides toward the target after being ejected by the rocket boosters.
This weapon will later be installed under the plane before being released. The rocket boosters propel the missile to a certain height and speed before expelling its payload which triggers a powerful explosion.
Quoted from airforce-technology.com, the AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) is a long-range hypersonic missile designed by Lockheed Martin for the US Air Force (USAF). The US Air Force awarded a contract worth more than $480 million to Lockheed Martin to design the ARRW, its second hypersonic weapon prototype after the Hypersonic Conventional Strike Weapon (HCSW) in August 2018.
AGM-183A itself is a hypersonic missile that carries Boost Glide technology which was developed to provide non-nuclear attacks against targets that are at close range. The missile is designed to accelerate to high speeds. It is predicted that the speed of this missile reaches Mach 5 or around 6125 km/hour. For maximum speed, this missile can reach speeds of Mach 20 or around 24696 km/hour with a range of about 925 km.
This weapon does not follow a predictable arc like a ballistic missile. In contrast, the ARRW glides down toward targets along a flatter trajectory and is capable of sudden maneuvers in flight. Its ability to reach that speed makes this weapon very difficult to detect, and defeat with current air defense systems.
The United States Department of Defense will also develop a new level of defense if these weapons have been produced by many other countries.