Air Force brings ARRW hypersonic missile program back from the dead
“Diversity imposes costs on the adversary,” one expert explained.
Patrick Tucker | June 5, 2025 10:13 PM ET
Air Force Technology Missiles
The Air Force is resurrecting its boost-glide missile program—an effort first launched to much fanfare in August 2018, only to see mixed results in testing and ultimately lose support from service leadership amid investment in alternative missiles.
The AGM-183A Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon, or ARRW, is one of two hypersonic concepts the Air Force is developing now, service head Gen. David Allvin told lawmakers Thursday. “You will see [them] in the budget submission, assuming it's what we had put forward,” he said, also hinting at two other classified systems currently in testing.
The Air Force first awarded Lockheed Martin a $480 million contract in 2018 to begin testing the ARRW. The missile is what’s called a boost-glide system: It reaches near-space altitudes using a rocket booster, then glides back to Earth at speeds exceeding five times the speed of sound (Mach 5). Unlike conventional ballistic missiles, modern boost-glide weapons can maneuver in flight, making them nearly impossible to intercept with existing missile defense systems.
The Air Force also continues to invest in the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile, or HACM, which uses a scramjet engine. Scramjets compress incoming air using the vehicle’s speed—also above Mach 5—mixing it with fuel and igniting it while in flight. The result is propulsion that’s efficient at hypersonic speeds and, like boost-glide systems, difficult to defend against. Scramjet-powered cruise missiles fly lower and maneuver more flexibly than their boost-glide counterparts, but they are slower. More importantly, the underlying technology has been demonstrated for more than two decades, making building them a less daunting technical challenge.
https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2025/06/air-force-brings-arrw-hypersonic-missile-program-back-dead/405867/?oref=d1-homepage-top-story
