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| US Air Force Cancels Purchase of AGM-183A ARRW Hypersonic Missile |
International Military - The US Air Force (USAF) has decided not to purchase the AGM-183A Air-Launched Rapid Response (ARRW) hypersonic weapon after a failed test of this missile. In the ARRW's first test run in December 2022, the missile reached speeds of up to five times the speed of sound. While in the second trial in March the results were not published in detail to the media.
US Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall told a recent hearing that the missile test in March had failed. After that procurement lead Andrew Hunter told members of the US Parliament on March 29 that the USAF would not buy Lockheed Martin's AGM-183A.
Nonetheless, the USAF will still complete the program's final two full test flights to gather data to assist future hypersonic programs.
“While the US Air Force does not currently intend to continue procuring the ARRW after the prototyping program is complete, there are inherent benefits to completing full test flights to obtain learning and test data that will help inform future programs. hypersonic,” Hunter said as quoted by Defense News.
Kendall told the US House Appropriations Committee Defense Panel on Tuesday that the ARRW's March 13 trial was unsuccessful. Testing the program, continued Kendall, experienced struggles (struggle) in the trial process.