USAF's first ARRW Booster Test Flight imminent
While the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s Armament Directorat announced on 5 March 2021 that a major hypersonic missile testing is on the horizon, Global Strike Command's chief talks about new opportunities.
Expected in the next 30 days, the USAF prepares for its B-52H Stratofortress first Booster Test Flight (BTF-1) launch of the AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW). This, following delivery of the ARRW test missile to Edwards AFB (CA).
B-52H "Dragon's Inferno", with serial number 60-0050, is now being prepared by conducting pre-flight ground tests and checks to obtain certification for the flight to proceed as scheduled. The Lockheed Martin BTF-1 test vehicle is complete and is progressing through ground testing to verify its readiness for flight.
It is expected that the first BTF will happen soon. This will be followed by several additional booster and all-up-round test flights by the end of the year. The ARRW programme is a rapid prototyping project that will leverage cutting edge technologies to deliver a conventional hypersonic weapons capability to the warfighter in the early 2020s. The weapon system provides combatant commanders the capability to destroy high-value, time-sensitive targets. The ARRW expands precision-strike weapon systems’ capabilities by enabling survivable rapid response strikes against heavily defended targets. The USAF designed the ARRW booster test vehicle to achieve the high speeds necessary to deliver the ARRW glide vehicle and embedded ordnance package to designated targets as required.
On 25 February 2021, Global Strike Command (GSC) chief Gen. Timothy M. Ray stated that he was pleased with the progress of the AGM-183A ARRW programme. New USAF plans emerged as Gen. Ray revealed that GSC is talking with Air Force leaders about making bombers both a “threshold and objective platform” for the "Mayhem" Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM). Although it is not sure if the Mayhem air-breathing weapon will be smaller than the ARRW, according to new opportunity plans, it is also meant to be carried by fighters.
USAF's deterrence weapons "Celeri Responsio" and "Mayhem" are supposed to be an answer to the threatening hypersonic weapons that are being developed and tested by both China and Russia.
Photos: USAF