US (& Allies) Hypersonic developments and missiles

Thought this deserved its own thread. Brought what I could find into it as a starter. This is what started me off

Steve Trimble
@TheDEWLine
·
9h
New Lockheed image. Four AGM-183A ARRWs on a B-52H. Those are some serious boosters. A B-1B will be able to carry six.

Note that the AGM-183A has not been fired yet. The photos show aerodynamic test samples fitted with sensors.



Flight Global

The US Air Force has selected Lockheed Martin to rapidly develop and field both new hypersonic missiles launched as a response to surprise developments in high-speed weapons by China and Russia, newly-released acquisition documents confirm.

The service already announced a $928 million award in April deal for Lockheed’s Missiles and Space company to develop the Hypersonic Conventional Strike Weapon (HCSW, pronounced “Hacksaw”).

But a new document reveals that the USAF awarded a separate deal to Lockheed’s Missiles and Fire Control division in July 2017 to rapidly develop and field the Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW, pronounced “Arrow”).

The ARRW, now assigned the designation AGM-183A, evolves from the Tactical Boost Glide (TBG) programme launched in 2014 by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). By using a rocket to boost the missile to very high altitudes, the unpowered ARRW then glides down to lower altitudes at speeds up to Mach 20.

Although Lockheed won the $780 million ARRW contract more than a year ago, the USAF was forced to re-open the competition this summer. The original deal was structured as an extension to a DARPA contract for TBG. The USAF later decided to restructure the terms using the service’s own acquisition process. That decision, however, required the USAF to re-consider the two bidders that had already been disqualified under the DARPA programme.

Boeing had been out of DARPA’s TBG programme since 2015 and Raytheon was cut after 2016, but both companies responded to the USAF’s latest call for information in July.

Neither of their responses, however, met the USAF’s requirements for ARRW. Indeed, Boeing presented an hypersonic design that flew a ballistic re-entry trajectory, rather than a glide profile as required, the USAF document says. Boeing’s design also proposed different propulsion systems for development and production versions of the weapon, which the USAF dismissed for adding too much risk. Raytheon Missile Systems submitted a compliant boost-glide concept, but the USAF criticised the proposal for lacking details about the effort required to field a flight-qualified weapon.

Lockheed’s concept — resubmitted a year after winning the original contract — was unsurprisingly far more detailed and technically compliant with the ARRW requirement, the USAF says. Moreover, Lockheed has worked with suppliers to prepare to meet the “required production rate at 36 months after contract award”, the USAF says.

Both ARRW and HCSW have come to light as the Department of Defense scrambles to respond to breakthroughs in hypersonic testing reported by China and Russia since 2016. Most recently, state media reported on 5 August that a hypersonic waverider vehicle — similar in concept to the Boeing X-51 demonstrator — completed a successful test in northwestern China at the end of last week. In February, Russian president Vladimir Putin revealed the existence of the Kinzhal (“Dagger”) missile, which is capable of hypersonic speed upon launch from a MiG-31.

Lockheed’s hypersonic experts now form the thrust of the US response to the Chinese and Russian developments. Although the contract awards went to the company’s operating divisions, the Skunk Works advanced prototyping and development organisation is heavily involved in designing and producing the new vehicles.

Source: FlightGlobal.com









There is more on the earlier single weapon fight in June 2019 at
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/28576/behold-the-first-flight-of-a-b-52-bomber-carrying-the-agm-183a-hypersonic-missile

The US Air Force (USAF) is conducting market research in search of companies capable of helping to build an air-breathing hypersonic cruise missile.

The service made known its interest in a “Future Hypersonics Program” sources sought notice posted online on 27 April 2020.



Source: Raytheon

The Future Hypersonics Program is intended to develop a “solid-rocket boosted, air-breathing, hypersonic conventional cruise missile, air-launched from existing fighter [or] bomber aircraft”, the USAF says.

The service is looking for the missile to have an open systems architecture.

“The effort involves the use of digital engineering and model-based engineering practices for requirements, design, trade studies, and analyses,” says the service. “This weapon system must be designed and analysed to achieve a preliminary design review in [the fourth quarter of FY2021].”

The USAF is looking for companies with a variety of expertise including sustained air-breathing hypersonic propulsion, such as ramjet, scramjet, or dual-mode engines; stable hypersonic aerodynamics; aero-thermal protection systems; solid rocket motors; warhead and missile integration; as well as advanced hypersonic guidance, navigation and control.

The Future Hypersonics Program is the USAF’s second air-breathing cruise missile effort. It is also developing in partnership with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency a cruise missile called the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC). A Raytheon-Northrop Grumman team and a Lockheed Martin-Aerojet Rocketdyne team are offering competing designs in the HAWC effort.

https://www.flightglobal.com/fixed-wing/us-air-force-launches-study-of-another-hypersonic-cruise-missile/138151.article

Report from 2018


The U.S. Air Force has awarded contracts to defense giant Lockheed Martin to develop two new hypersonic weapon systems. The contracts are in response to the rapid development of hypersonics in Russia and China, a development that could challenge U.S. technological superiority.

The first weapon, the AGM-183A Advanced Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW, pronounced “Arrow”) is an outgrowth of the DARPA’s Tactical Boost Glide program. ARRW is a rocket carried aloft by an aircraft such as a B-52 bomber and has a top speed of up to Mach 20. This makes it up to four times faster than Russian and Chinese hypersonic weapons, including Starry Sky 2 and Kinzhal. The Air Force recently awarded Lockheed Martin a $480 million contract to develop the ARRW, with an eye towards operational capability in 2021.
image
Kinzhal, a tactical ballistic missile launched from a MiG-31 interceptor that flies at hypersonic speeds.
Russian Ministry of DefenseGetty Images

The second weapon is the Hypersonic Conventional Strike Weapon (HCSW, or “Hacksaw”). A solid fuel rocket with GPS guidance, HCSW is also designed to be carried by aircraft with a planned in-service date of 2022. Lockheed Martin received $928 million to work on Hacksaw in April 2018.



https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/weapons/a22791042/the-first-us-hypersonic-weapons-arrow-and-hacksaw/

By Stephen Trimble7 August 2018

Save article

The US Air Force has selected Lockheed Martin to rapidly develop and field both new hypersonic missiles launched as a response to surprise developments in high-speed weapons by China and Russia, newly-released acquisition documents confirm.

The service already announced a $928 million award in April deal for Lockheed’s Missiles and Space company to develop the Hypersonic Conventional Strike Weapon (HCSW, pronounced “Hacksaw”).

But a new document reveals that the USAF awarded a separate deal to Lockheed’s Missiles and Fire Control division in July 2017 to rapidly develop and field the Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW, pronounced “Arrow”).

The ARRW, now assigned the designation AGM-183A, evolves from the Tactical Boost Glide (TBG) programme launched in 2014 by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). By using a rocket to boost the missile to very high altitudes, the unpowered ARRW then glides down to lower altitudes at speeds up to Mach 20.

Although Lockheed won the $780 million ARRW contract more than a year ago, the USAF was forced to re-open the competition this summer. The original deal was structured as an extension to a DARPA contract for TBG. The USAF later decided to restructure the terms using the service’s own acquisition process. That decision, however, required the USAF to re-consider the two bidders that had already been disqualified under the DARPA programme.

Boeing had been out of DARPA’s TBG programme since 2015 and Raytheon was cut after 2016, but both companies responded to the USAF’s latest call for information in July.

Neither of their responses, however, met the USAF’s requirements for ARRW. Indeed, Boeing presented an hypersonic design that flew a ballistic re-entry trajectory, rather than a glide profile as required, the USAF document says. Boeing’s design also proposed different propulsion systems for development and production versions of the weapon, which the USAF dismissed for adding too much risk. Raytheon Missile Systems submitted a compliant boost-glide concept, but the USAF criticised the proposal for lacking details about the effort required to field a flight-qualified weapon.

Lockheed’s concept — resubmitted a year after winning the original contract — was unsurprisingly far more detailed and technically compliant with the ARRW requirement, the USAF says. Moreover, Lockheed has worked with suppliers to prepare to meet the “required production rate at 36 months after contract award”, the USAF says.

Both ARRW and HCSW have come to light as the Department of Defense scrambles to respond to breakthroughs in hypersonic testing reported by China and Russia since 2016. Most recently, state media reported on 5 August that a hypersonic waverider vehicle — similar in concept to the Boeing X-51 demonstrator — completed a successful test in northwestern China at the end of last week. In February, Russian president Vladimir Putin revealed the existence of the Kinzhal (“Dagger”) missile, which is capable of hypersonic speed upon launch from a MiG-31.

Lockheed’s hypersonic experts now form the thrust of the US response to the Chinese and Russian developments. Although the contract awards went to the company’s operating divisions, the Skunk Works advanced prototyping and development organisation is heavily involved in designing and producing the new vehicles.

Source: FlightGlobal.com

USA, Norway to continue THOR-ER hypersonic work

By Greg Waldron21 April 2020

Save article

The USA and Norway will continue research work into solid fuel ramjet technologies, with an eye to developing affordable full-sized prototypes with high-speeds and long ranges.

The Tactical High-speed Offensive Ramjet for Extended Range (THOR-ER) is an Allied Prototyping Initiative (API) under the USA’s Directorate for Advanced Capabilities.



Source: Nammo

Nammo unveiled its new ramjet powered missile concept in September 2019 at DSEi in London

“This continuation is an important next step in advancing high-speed propulsion technologies with our Norwegian partners,” says Michael Griffin, Under Secretary for Research and Engineering.

“It will drive fielding of the critical technologies needed to ensure U.S. and Allied military superiority in hypersonic systems.”

THOR-ER draws on Norway’s long-term research into missile and rocket technology. On the Norwegian side, the project involves defence and propulsion specialist Nammo.

“Nammo’s new propulsion solutions are closing the range gap between the US and its future potential adversaries,” says Nammo chief executive Morten Brandtzæg.

“Our involvement in THOR-ER allows us to bring together the best of US and Norwegian propulsion technology through the framework of a bilateral US-Norwegian partnership, and this fits perfectly with our long term ambitions.”

https://www.flightglobal.com/defence/usa-norway-to-continue-thor-er-hypersonic-work/137987.article

Why the US Air Force chose hypersonic ARRW over HCSW

By Garrett Reim, Orlando, Florida28 February 2020


The US Air Force’s (USAF) decision to cancel the Hypersonic Conventional Strike Weapon (HCSW) and proceed with Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) came down to size and shape of the missile, in addition to budgetary pressures and a desire to move toward production faster.

The HCSW programme was cancelled several weeks ago. The ARRW programme passed its critical design review on 27 February.



Source: Lockheed Martin

Notional hypersonic glide vehicle

Still, the HCSW missile was promising, says Will Roper, assistant secretary of the USAF for acquisition, technology and logistics, a the Air Force Association Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Florida.

“I truly, truly hate having to down select between HCSW and ARRW a year early,” he says. “The team of Lockheed Martin and our government team were green, ready to get to flight testing in the next year and so you hate to have to take a programme that can get to flight test and make a decision a year early.”

The USAF awarded a $780 million contract to Lockheed Martin 2017 to develop ARRW. It is a so-called boost-glide hypersonic system; a vehicle which is dropped from an aircraft and then uses a rocket to accelerate its payload to high speeds, before the payload separates from the rocket and glides unpowered to its destination at hypersonic speeds up to Mach 20.

The HCSW, also a boost-glide missile, was funded with a $928 million development contract that was awarded to Lockheed Martin in 2018.

The Pentagon had to decide between the two missiles because the USAF’s FY2021 budget request, which totaled $169 billion, was flat compared to the previous year and several new expensive initiatives are to burn up cash. In particular, the service plans to spend heavily on rebuilding its nuclear armament via the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent programme, its space capabilities via the newly formed Space Force and its networking ability via its Joint All Domain Command and Control effort.

“Those are huge initiatives and they took a lot of the budget. We had to make tough choices, and one of them was down selecting early,” says Roper.

Ultimately, ARRW was chosen over HCSW for several reasons.

The reason that we went with ARRW was not that HCSW was bad, but ARRW is smaller. You can carry twice as many on the B-52,” says Roper. “It’s possible it could go on the F-15, if we don’t experience mass growth, but we haven’t validated that yet. It’s in class to be able to fit on the center line.”

Having ARRW in the Pentagon’s quiver also adds variety to its selection of hypersonic weapons.

“ARRW is a unique design and it’s a more advanced design,” says Roper. “At the department portfolio level, it diversifies the number of flight bodies that are being looked at so you’re not all looking at the same thing.”

Choosing a hypersonic weapon also allows the USAF to focus on quickly producing the missile.

“In both programmes, we have single suppliers,” says Roper. “We would like to get to duel suppliers for both so that we don’t just succeed in flight testing, [but] we move into an industry base that’s capable to produce at scale.”

The service doesn’t aim to produce hypersonic weapons at a massive scale, but instead wants to be able to have an “agile, adaptive industry base that can allow us to do spiral upgrades, [production] lot to lot,” he says.

“We’re really looking at suppliers who can 3-D print components, like leading edges that we think we’ll need to iterate on, so that we’ve got an adaptable agile industry base where we don’t have single points of failure,” says Roper. “By down selecting earlier, we’re able to start bringing on the second supplier.”

The HCSW programme will continue development a little longer, despite being cancelled.

“We will close out [critical design review] for HCSW, so that we tie up that design in case it needs to be started in the future,” says Roper.

https://www.flightglobal.com/fixed-wing/why-the-us-air-force-chose-hypersonic-arrw-over-hcsw/137018.article

Japan’s Acquisition, Technology & Logistics Agency (ATLA) started developing a hypersonic guided missile able to attack both ships or ground targets. The missile, qualified as “game changer” by the Japanese Ministry of Defense’s agency, will use scramjet engine technology for propulsion.

Yoshihiro Inaba 27 Apr 2020

Development work of this new missile began in 2019 and is set to be completed in the 2030s. ATLA is currently in the development phase of the scramjet engine along with local company Mitsubishi Heavy Industries which won a contract for the prototype engine research.

The missile aims to be powered by a Dual-Mode Scramjet engine (DMSJ), a combination of ramjet and scramjet (supersonic combustion ramjet) engines, to fly at a wide range of speeds, including hypersonic speeds of Mach 5 or higher.

The scramjet engine is expected to have high engine efficiency in a wide range of speeds, from Mach 5 to 15, because the air inhaled from the intake is compressed and combusted at supersonic speed when the missile flying at Mach 5 or higher. That means that the scramjet engine would need to be accelerated the missile to hypersonic speeds to operate, and that would require acceleration by a rocket booster. However, a large rocket booster would be required to accelerate to hypersonic speeds, which would increase the overall length of the missile, including the booster. Therefore, ATLA planned to combine the capabilities of the ramjet engine, which operates efficiently in the Mach 3 to 5 speed range(supersonic speed), with the scramjet engine (DMSJ) to reduce the proportion of the rocket booster. In this way, the rocket booster only needs to accelerate the missile to supersonic speed, and from there, the ramjet engine accelerates the missile to hypersonic speed, which then activates the scramjet engine to cruise.



https://geopolitics.news/asia-pacific/japans-atla-developing-hypersonic-anti-ship-missile/

Garry, can you add "and Allies" to the thread title after the "US" please?

JohninMK wrote:Garry, can you add "and Allies" to the thread title after the "US" please?

there is a lot of talk for US hypersonic weapons development here also

https://www.russiadefence.net/t2758-russia-us-and-other-developments-in-hypersonic-research

George1 wrote:

there is a lot of talk for US hypersonic weapons development here also

https://www.russiadefence.net/t2758-russia-us-and-other-developments-in-hypersonic-research

I understand that George, it made sense when Russia was so far ahead and there are glimmerings of Western products that made up a small proportion of the posts but as time goes on and the Russian products become more mature so less newsworthy the Western aspect will start to dominate the thread.

But surely now that they are heading towards actual products, albeit gradually, it no longer makes logical sense to include Western developments and products in the Russian section of the site, we don't in other technology areas.

Time to split the topic?

JohninMK wrote:

George1 wrote:

there is a lot of talk for US hypersonic weapons development here also

https://www.russiadefence.net/t2758-russia-us-and-other-developments-in-hypersonic-research

I understand that George, it made sense when Russia was so far ahead and there are glimmerings of Western products that made up a small proportion of the posts but as time goes on and the Russian products become more mature so less newsworthy the Western aspect will start to dominate the thread.

But surely now that they are heading towards actual products, albeit gradually, it no longer makes logical sense to include Western developments and products in the Russian section of the site, we don't in other technology areas.

Time to split the topic?

i will do it the next days

George1 wrote:
i will do it the next days

Thanks, done already

Breaking Defense outlines four of the hypersonic program the DoD is working on:
   
Air-launched boost-glide: Air Force ARRW (Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon). The Air Force also had another program in this category, HCSW (Hypersonic Conventional Strike Weapon), but they canceled it to focus on ARRW, which the service considers more innovative and promising.
   
Surface-launched boost-glide: Army LRHW (Long Range Hypersonic Weapon) and Navy CPS (Conventional Prompt Strike). Both weapons share the same rocket booster, built by the Navy, and the same Common Hypersonic Glide Body, built by the Army, but one tailors the package to launch from a wheeled vehicle and the other from a submarine.
   
Air-launched air-breathing: HAWC (Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapons Concept) and HSW-ab (Hypersonic Strike Weapon-air breathing). Arguably the most challenging and cutting-edge technology, these programs are both currently run by DARPA, which specializes in high-risk, high-return research, but they'll be handed over to the Air Force when they mature.
   
Surface-launched air-breathing: This is the one category not in development – at least not in the unclassified world. But Lewis said, "eventually, you could see some ground-launched air breathers as well. I personally think those are very promising."

Some of the first hypersonic weapons could be deployed with the Army in 2023. Though, as we've previously noted, Russia has already deployed hypersonic missiles, and China has been doing many live-fire tests.



https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/pentagon-reviewing-hypersonic-program-investments-mach-5-missiles-are-expected-soar

U.S. Air Force Investigates Hypersonic Test Mishap

LOS ANGELES and WASHINGTON—A scramjet-powered missile developed under the joint DARPA/U.S. Air Force Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) program was destroyed in a recent test accident, Aviation Week has learned.

The missile is believed to have inadvertently separated from a B-52 carrier aircraft during a captive-carry flight test, according to sources familiar with the evaluation. The cause of the mishap, which is thought to have involved an aircraft from the 419th Flight Test Squadron at Edwards AFB, California, is under investigation.

The Air Force referred questions about the incident to DARPA, but the agency declined to provide any details. “Details of those flight demonstrations are classified,” a DARPA spokesman said.

Aviation Week understands pieces of the instrumented test article were recovered after the accident. The description could suggest the payload inadvertently detached from the B-52 in flight, rather than during ground tests or on the runway. It also suggests the mishap potentially occurred over land—possibly over a designated test range such as the Edwards Precision Impact Range Area or the nearby Naval Air Weapons Station test range at China Lake—rather than during transit for a wet dress rehearsal or live fire test over the Pacific range.

The mishap adds to the mysteries shrouding the status of the HAWC program, which is already several months behind an original schedule that called for a first flight in 2019. DARPA originally selected Lockheed Martin in 2017 to develop a HAWC demonstrator powered by a Aerojet Rocketdyne scramjet having rejected an alternative design submitted by Raytheon. However, a redesigned Raytheon missile impressed DARPA, leading to a contract award for a second flight demonstration in March 2019.

As of June 2019, Lockheed and Raytheon executives were optimistic that captive-carry and free-flight tests for both HAWC concepts would occur by the end of 2019, but the end of the year passed with no report of either milestone being passed. It is believed the Lockheed Martin HAWC variant was involved in the recent incident.

https://aviationweek.com/defense-space/missile-defense-weapons/us-air-force-investigates-hypersonic-test-mishap

Crash and burn baby 2 F-35, 1 F-22 this thing, I hope our Polish troll is ok

Hypersonic Strike Systems Of United States

Even two years ago, hypersonic weapons were barely an item of discussion among the US national security establishment. Today these weapons are all the rage. What accounts for that sudden emergence of US interest in this category of weapons, which has spurred research and development on several different weapon systems that are to enter service at some point in the upcoming decade? And what are the implications of their eventual likely entry into service?

......
https://southfront.org/hypersonic-strike-systems/

Or they were testing the missile and nothing happened so they covered it up by pretending it was an accident...

All the weapons they are showing being carried around the place are non functional mockups that are not tested yet... but that is normal isn't it... Typhoons flying around waiting for ground attack capacity to be added... F-35s flying around unable to do most of the things they are supposed to do... waiting for problems to be written off as too hard to fix...

Construction of a production line for the assembly of C-HGB hypersonic planning blocks in the USA

On July 1, 2020, U.S. Army Secretary Ryan McCartney inspected the construction progress of the Dynetics Technical Solutions (DTS) production line for the assembly of guided maneuverable planning hypersonic Common-Hypersonic Glide Body (C-HGB) warheads in Huntsville, Alabama.

At a meeting with the staff, the US Army Secretary of State said: “The military needs hypersonic weapons systems that will soon be built in Huntsville. This will give us a technical advantage in a likely war for decades to come. Your work here will protect our way of life. The United States will to invest billions of dollars over the next five years to quickly manufacture and deploy hundreds of such missiles to equip our strategic containment forces. "

As bmpd's colleagues previously reported, the versatile guided maneuverable planning hypersonic warhead of the Common-Hypersonic Glide Body (C-HGB) was developed initially to equip weapons systems of three types of the American armed forces (army, air force and navy) under the auspices of the army army hypersonic project management Hypersonic Project Office; part of the RCCTO) Sandia National Laboratory of the US Department of Energy. The C-HGB hypersonic warhead is based on the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon (AHW) experimental hypersonic warhead developed by the Sandia National Laboratories in the interests of the U.S. Army, flight tests of which were carried out with two launches in 2011 and 2014 (the second launch was unsuccessful due to an acceleration block accident) and reached in 2011 a speed of 8M. For the C-HGB, the officially announced speed is "over 5M".

So far, C-HGB units have been manufactured by Sandia National Laboratories themselves, however, in August 2019, the U.S. Army issued a contract to Dynetics Technical Solutions (DTS) in the amount of $ 352 million for the serial production of the C-HGB hypersonic warhead. According to a statement by General Turgud, DTS, together with Sandia National Laboratories, will produce a block for the third flight test scheduled for the third quarter of fiscal year 2021 at the site of the latter, and then the company will begin to independently manufacture C-HGB blocks at its famous factory in Huntsville (Alabama) for subsequent flight tests and for serial weapons.



https://bmpd.livejournal.com/4077441.html

For the C-HGB, the officially announced speed is "over 5M".

The Kh-15 and Kh-32 reach those speeds already and the former left service in the mid 1990s... it will likely be replaced by the Mach 6, 1,500km ranged Gzur missile...

The hypersonic stuff costs are going steadily up. Turning into a nice little profit earner, thanks to Russia

Steve Trimble
@TheDEWLine
·
15h
A history of cost estimates for the AGM-183 ARRW hypersonic missile program, which funds development and test of four prototype missiles:

March 2018: $854.7 million

March 2019: $1.213 billion

March 2020: $1.364 billion

Source: House Appropriations Defense subcommittee report

JohninMK wrote:The hypersonic stuff costs are going steadily up. Turning into a nice little profit earner, thanks to Russia ...

Least they could do would be to send Russia basket of fruits and a card

Where did manners go?

But the US has said the way it is going to defeat the Russians and the Chinese is an arms race and they will win by outspending them... so this is all going to plan... we are in debt... increase spending and cut taxes to the big rich companies we are throwing money at....

The U.S. Army has released new video footage of a hypersonic missile test it carried out in cooperation with the U.S. Navy earlier this year, including clips of it in flight and impacting the designated target area. That launch, dubbed Flight Experiment 2, was in support of the development of a common hypersonic boost-glide vehicle that is set to eventually go on top of ground and submarine-launched missiles.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/35369/army-shows-first-ever-footage-of-new-hypersonic-missile-in-flight-and-impacting

New aerodynamic test of the American advanced hypersonic missile AGM-183A ARRW

54 position in rating
U.S. Air Force reportedthat on August 8, 2020, a new (and final) aerodynamic test (without reset) was carried out on the strategic bomber Boeing B-52Н Stratofortress of the American advanced hypersonic air-launched missile AGM-183A ARRW (Air Launched Rapid Response Weapon, also used by the acronym Arrow), created by by Lockheed Martin Corporation. An experimental B-52H bomber (military number 60-0050, its own name is Dragon's Inferno) from the 419th test squadron of the US Air Force flew from Edwards Air Force Base in California with two non-flying prototypes of the AGM-183A rocket suspended from one node of the outer wing suspension, one of which, presumably, was a mass-dimensional model equipped with a part of the control system, and the second with an IMV-2 (Instrumented Measurement Vehicle) telemetry unit.

The United States Air Force reported that during this test flight, the IMV-2 successfully transmitted telemetry data to the ground stations of the Point Mugu missile range. "The tests confirmed the integration of the system with the B-52 launch platform and telemetry in the development of application concepts that will be used during the first test flight of the missile later this year."

Earlier, the US Air Force has already conducted two aerodynamic tests (without reset) of the AGM-183A ARRW on a B-52H aircraft, the first of which took place on June 12, 2019. Presumably, they used a mass-dimensional rocket mockup equipped with part of a control system.

Structurally, ARRW is reportedly a solid-fuel air-launched missile with a warhead in the form of a detachable hypersonic warhead with a Tactical Boost Glide (TBG) rocket engine, for some time being created under the auspices of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of the US Department of Defense. The characteristics of the system are unknown, although unofficially its TBG warhead is credited with a speed of up to M = 20. Presumably, the first aerodynamic tests of the TBG warhead were carried out in March 2019. According to some sources, the ARRW missile is planned to be created primarily in the nuclear version; the strategic bombers B-52H and B-1V should be equipped with the missile as a matter of priority.

The initial phase of ARRW R&D was carried out by Lockheed Martin under a $ 480 million contract issued by the US Air Force in August 2018, which is due to be completed by December 2021. In December 2019, the US Department of Defense issued a new contract to Lockheed Martin for the full-scale development, testing and preparation for mass production of the ARRW missile, totaling $ 988.832 million.The work should be carried out very quickly and be completed by December 31, 2022.

In June 2020, it became known that the US Air Force plans to purchase eight prototypes of the ARRW rocket for flight tests (four for testing and four spare), with flight tests in 2021 and 2022 fiscal years and the beginning of the arrival of the rocket into service (meaning the transfer for this four spare experimental missiles) from the beginning of the 2023 financial year (that is, from October 1, 2022 of the calendar year) - the reality of the latter, however, raises doubts, since it was previously reported that work on the TBG block was lagging behind the schedule by about a year.








https://bmpd.livejournal.com/4109060.html

Quite a good article on the same subject as George posted



https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/35530/check-out-this-b-52-stratofortress-carrying-two-agm-183-hypersonic-test-missiles

https://defence-blog.com/news/army/lockheed-martin-releases-first-image-of-new-hypersonic-long-range-missile-system.html/amp?__twitter_impression=true