US Air Force admits to another ARRW hypersonic missile test failure

New Delhi: The US Air Force’s 13 March test of a hypersonic weapon was “not a success,” the service secretary told lawmakers on Tuesday.

Frank Kendall indicated the Lockheed Martin-made AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon program may be in jeopardy and suggested that it’s more likely to adopt a competing system built by Raytheon.

The service, he said, is “more committed to HACM (the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile, the service’s other major hypersonic weapon program) at this point in time than we are to Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW).”

“The one we just had was not a success,” Russia Today quoted Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall telling members of the House Appropriations Committee’s defence panel during a hearing on the fiscal 2024 budget request on Tuesday.

Referring to a 13 March test of the AGM-183A ARRW, a hypersonic attack cruise missile, off the coast of Southern California, Kendall said, “We did not get the data that we needed from that test, so they’re currently examining that to try to understand what happened.”

According to the report, Kendall gave no specifics on what went wrong with the launch. His comments may have come as a surprise to lawmakers because the Air Force issued a press release last week indicating that the ARRW test “met several objectives.” The release made no mention of the test’s failure, the report added.

ARRW delayed

The ARRW has been under development since 2018 and was delayed after three failed booster tests in 2021. Last May, the Air Force declared the missile’s first successful launch, claiming it reached speeds greater than Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound.

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US forces don’t yet have a fully operational hypersonic missile system, as Washington has fallen behind Russia and China in the race to develop such weapons. Hypersonic missiles travel at speeds over Mach 5 and are highly maneuverable, making them difficult to shoot down.

Kendall told lawmakers that in light of the latest ARRW test, the Air Force is “more committed” to its other hypersonic program, the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM).

A budgeting decision on whether to adopt the ARRW is expected to be made next year, after as many as two more test launches.

Funds for ARRW

The Air Force received nearly $115 million in research, development, test and evaluation funds for ARRW in financial year 2023, down from $308 million the previous year. The service has requested $150 million in RDT&E funds for ARRW in finanacial year 2024 — but no procurement funds, and budget documents are silent on what the program’s R&D funding could be in subsequent years.

However, HACM received $423 million in FY23, and the Air Force wants to spend nearly $382 million on that program’s RDT&E in FY24. The service’s budget documents map out a plan for spending nearly $1.5 billion more on HACM between FY25 and FY28.

Kendall said that the HACM program has been “reasonably successful” so far.

“We see a definite role for the HACM concept. It’s compatible with more of our aircraft, and it will give us more combat capability overall,” he added.

With inputs from agencies

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