Photo: Lockheed Martin
We all know missiles and other such devastating weapons are fast. But until recently, few of us could have foreseen such a rapid development of weapons that are a hell of a lot faster than anything imaginable, capable of reaching hypersonic speeds.
Research into this field is being conducted by militaries across the world, each seeking to get an upper hand over potential foes by coming up with a design that it’s almost impossible to intercept due to the incredibly high speeds.
As the world’s leading nation in terms of military prowess, America has a number of such projects in the pipeline. One of them is the AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW), presently being put together by Lockheed Martin.
Work on the hypersonic weapon started in 2018, and the U.S. Air Force (USAF) has already tested the thing three times back in 2021. Granted, all three tests were considered failures for various reasons.
This May though, the ARRW overcame its issues, and was successfully dropped from a B-52 Stratofortress, ignited its booster, and for the first time reached speeds of five times the speed of sound.
"The test team made sure we executed this test flawlessly," said Lt. Col. Michael Jungquist, 419th FLTS commander and GPB CTF director. "Our highly-skilled team made history on this first air-launched hypersonic weapon. We're doing everything we can to get this game-changing weapon to the warfighter as soon as possible."
The results of the test, conducted by the 419th Flight Test Squadron and the Global Power Bomber Combined Test Force out of Edwards Air Force Base, opens the doors for a more rapid development of the ARRW.
When fully ready, it should be capable of reaching speeds of Mach 20 (that’s over 15,000 mph/24,000 kph) and will have a range of about 1,000 miles (1,600 km).
As the world’s leading nation in terms of military prowess, America has a number of such projects in the pipeline. One of them is the AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW), presently being put together by Lockheed Martin.
Work on the hypersonic weapon started in 2018, and the U.S. Air Force (USAF) has already tested the thing three times back in 2021. Granted, all three tests were considered failures for various reasons.
This May though, the ARRW overcame its issues, and was successfully dropped from a B-52 Stratofortress, ignited its booster, and for the first time reached speeds of five times the speed of sound.
"The test team made sure we executed this test flawlessly," said Lt. Col. Michael Jungquist, 419th FLTS commander and GPB CTF director. "Our highly-skilled team made history on this first air-launched hypersonic weapon. We're doing everything we can to get this game-changing weapon to the warfighter as soon as possible."
The results of the test, conducted by the 419th Flight Test Squadron and the Global Power Bomber Combined Test Force out of Edwards Air Force Base, opens the doors for a more rapid development of the ARRW.
When fully ready, it should be capable of reaching speeds of Mach 20 (that’s over 15,000 mph/24,000 kph) and will have a range of about 1,000 miles (1,600 km).
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