The now concluded AGM-183 ARRW program received an Aviation Week Laureate award for achieving the first end-to-end tests of a hypersonic glide vehicle with a high lift-to-drag design.
The Lockheed Martin team behind the development of the AGM-183 Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) has recently received an Aviation Week Laureate award in the Defense category. The reason for the award was the achievement of the first end-to-end tests of a hypersonic glide vehicle with a high lift-to-drag design.
The 67th Annual Laureate Awards honored extraordinary achievements in the global aerospace arena for the Commercial Aviation, Defense, Space, Business Aviation, and MRO sectors. The award ceremony took place on Mar. 6, 2025, at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC.
“The extraordinary innovations in aviation and space during this past year are remarkable. As editors at Aviation Week, we have selected the 67th Annual Laureates after a rigorous screening of internal and external nominations,” said Joe Anselmo, editorial director and editor-in-chief of Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine. “The winners represent the best of the best and those who are pushing the boundaries of what is possible.”
While the ARRW program had a troubled story, with multiple failed test, it was nonetheless fundamental to collect data which would help mature hypersonic technology for future programs. In fact, in 2023, Air Force Assistant Secretary for Acquisition Andrew Hunter said “there is inherent benefit to completing the all-up round test flights to garner the learning and test data that will help inform future hypersonic programs”.
“This achievement reflects our partnership with the United States Air Force and our dedication to advancing the ARRW system’s capabilities,” said Tim Cahill, President, Missiles and Fire Control at Lockheed Martin. “We are focused on rapidly delivering this hypersonic-strike technology to ensure America’s warfighters have the edge they need.”
The ARRW program, now completed, faces an uncertain future as the U.S. Air Force is planning to abandon it and focus instead on the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM). As mentioned by Aviation Week in the announcement of the awards, “the program battled numerous obstacles and a daunting schedule to demonstrate the viability of an air-launched hypersonic weapon with the ability to maneuver during the glide phase.”
The AGM-183 ARRW
The AGM-183A ARRW is based on hypersonic glide vehicle technology derived from the Air Force and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Science and Technology (S&T) Demonstration known as Tactical Boost Glide (TBG). A fragmenting glide vehicle is launched from a conventional rocket, or more precisely a Solid-Rocket Motor (SRM) booster, to the upper atmosphere and, once it reaches hypersonic speeds, it separates from the rocket and glides to its target at speeds up to Mach 15. At these speeds, there is no need for a conventional explosive warhead as the kinetic energy alone delivered during impact would be enough to destroy most targets.
The Air Force also defined the ARRW as an “operational hypersonic air-launched weapon enabling the U.S. to hold fixed, high value, time-sensitive targets at risk in contested environments from standoff distances.” The missile would have provided a survivable, lethal, long-range strike capability to go after high-end capabilities of a potential adversary, such as deep-inland strike against targets of strategic importance and coastal strike against high-end systems. Initially, the expected introduction in service of the AGM-183 was planned for 2022.
In 2023, the Air Force said it does not currently intend to pursue follow-on procurement of ARRW once the prototyping program concludes, adding that there is inherent benefit to completing the all-up round test flights to garner the learning and test data that will help inform future hypersonic programs. The decision apparently was influenced by the latest test flight of the missile at that time, which ended with another failure. The FY 2025 Budget Request also did not include ARRW.
Although the Air Force decided in April 2023 to not pursue the procurement of the weapon, the Director, Operational Test & Evaluation report mentioned in 2024 that the ARRW program has shown preliminary indications that it could become an operationally lethal weapon, however the lack of terminal characterization data to date, due to technical failure of the test range sensor systems in the December 2022 test and the shroud not ejecting in March 2023, does not yet allow for a full assessment. Preliminary info released from the August 2023 test’s data analysis say it achieved nominal conditions.
The report continues saying that, given the limited number of planned test events, there is a risk that the test program will not be able to demonstrate the ARRW lethal effects against the required tactical and strategic targets. The survivability assessment estimated the probability that a single ARRW will complete its mission, given the capabilities of various early warning radars, surface-to-air missile systems, and anti-aircraft artillery batteries to detect and engage ARRW in various one-on-one scenarios, indicating that it will meet its survivability requirements.
The test conducted from Guam in 2024, which saw the launch of a live AGM-183 at the Reagan Test Site in the Pacific, was considered to be the last test of the hypersonic weapon. The test was significative as it represented the first time a U.S. hypersonic weapon was seen this close to China, and was supposed to replicate an operational mission where the bomber flies for 4,000 km before launching the hypersonic weapon.
The DOTE report
The latest Director, Operational Test and Evaluation report mentioned the completion of the operational demonstration (Ops Demo) program in March 2024. The Air Force is now assessing the all-up round test flights’ (ATF) results to “inform the way ahead for the technologies developed in the ARRW program.”
The report says the service conducted two ATFs in 2024 to further validate ARRW’s performance in the free flight state from release through terminal maneuver as well as terminal effects. Both flight tests were considered adequate to demonstrate operational effectiveness and suitability.
The report also confirmed that the last test in March 2024, the Ops Demo, included a land impact. Previously, the Air Force mentioned that the test took place at the Reagan Test Site, near Kwajalein Atoll, which was already used in the past for impact testing of other weapons.
Also, the Ops Demo was conducted by operational personnel, which was provided training for the occasion. In fact, before the demo, the service showed B-52 crews from the 23rd Expeditionary Bomb Squadron and 49th Test and Evaluation Squadron as they participated in hypersonic weapon familiarization training.
The DOTE says the Air Force collected sufficient data to demonstrate system capability in a permissive environment, but not enough information to confidently assess operational effectiveness, lethality, suitability, and survivability. The Air Force is now in the final stages of conducting analysis of test data that captured missile and glider flight characteristics as well as warhead performance and comparing the observed results to modeling and simulation (M&S) results.
Regarding the performance, the DOTE says preliminary results indicate that the ARRW weapon system demonstrated sufficient mission capability in a permissive environment. Also, the Air Force demonstrated the ARRW would be able to satisfy the required launch platform release conditions, downrange and cross-range requirements, and the time to place effects on target requirements that are needed to support the strike mission.
However, there is insufficient data to determine weapon accuracy with statistical confidence. Analysis of the effects of fragment impacts, specifically dispersion and penetration of ARRW’s fragmenting warhead, on the targets’ functionality is still pending, says the report.
