The Air Force Says Its First Hypersonic Missile Will Make Its Inaugural Flight Within 30 Days
The new schedule comes after an Air Force official said just recently that the first flight test of the AGM-183 would take place this past week.
By Joseph Trevithick March 5, 2021
The War Zone
The U.S. Air Force has again pushed back the date for the first flight of its AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon, or ARRW. The launch was supposed to finally occur this week, after being delayed due to unspecified issues last year, but is now expected to take place sometime within the next month or so.
The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s Armament Directorate at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida announced on March 5, 2021, that the first ARRW flight, dubbed Booster Test Flight 1 (BTF-1), should occur "in the next 30 days." On Feb. 26, during a presentation as part of the Air Force Association's 2021 Virtual Aerospace Warfare Symposium, Air Force Brigadier General Heath Collins, the service's Program Executive Officer for Weapons, had declared BTF-1 would happen by the end of this week. Before that, this test was supposed to take place before the end of December 2020.
No specific reasons were given for the new delay, but unspecified "technical findings" and the continuing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic were cited as factors. "The BTF-1 test vehicle is complete and is progressing through ground testing to verify its readiness for flight," General Collins said in a statement.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/39634/agm-183-hypersonic-missile-to-make-first-flight-within-30-days-according-to-air-force
