US conducts first full hypersonic missile test

After years of troubled development and doubts about political commitment to the project, the United States has for the first time fully tested a hypersonic missile.

The flight of the AGM-183A ARRW (acronym for Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon, but which sounds like “arrow” in English) took place on Friday (9) and was successful, according to the US Air Force.

With that, the Americans try to gain space in a race in which they are behind Russia and China, their main adversaries in the military field, and perhaps even smaller countries that are hostile to them, such as North Korea and Iran.

The ARRW, manufactured by Lockheed Martin after winning a $480 million contract in 2018, was launched by a B-52H strategic bomber. Earlier, he had gone through a bumpy rehearsal phase, marked by failures.

Only in May of this year a successful flight test took place, in which the first stage of the weapon was tested. It is the “body” of the missile, a high-performance solid-fuel launcher that can reach up to five times the speed of sound.

Another test took place in July and now the entire ARRW has been tested. It consists of a maneuverable hypersonic glider vehicle that is pushed to a terminal speed 20 times the speed of sound (24,000 km/h).

Large ballistic missiles, the kind that carry nuclear weapons from the great powers, arrive at these speeds close to the time of reaching the target, but follow a predictable trajectory. The advantage of the new hypersonics is this, being able to maneuver.

These models, under study since the Cold War, gained worldwide prominence when they were part of the “invincible weapons” package announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2018.

One of the Russian models, already in operation, is also a hypersonic glider, the Avangard. The difference is that this model, which can carry a nuclear warhead, is launched from the ground by an intercontinental missile until it reaches the action altitude.

Another Russian hypersonic model is the Tsirkon, a cruise missile that flies at lower altitudes and was designed to be a weapon launched by ships against maritime targets. Then there is the more basic Kinjal in the form of an aircraft-launched ballistic missile, which was once employed in the Ukrainian War.

China has followed suit, and last year surprised Western analysts with what appeared to be a sophisticated test of a hypersonic glider. In addition, it has another model of its kind in operation, the DF-17. This year, it announced a missile designed to attack aircraft carriers, an offensive differential for rivals in Washington.

North Koreans and Iranians announced different models, but without proving their existence, something natural given the opacity of the regimes in these countries.

In the American case, there were also political doubts about hypersonics. The Air Force has already said that it is not convinced of the cost-effectiveness of these weapons, in view of the solidity of the so-called American nuclear triad: warheads that can be delivered to the target by means of missiles in silos, launched by planes or submarines.

So much so that the country’s new strategic bomber program, the B-21 Raider, was accelerated. There are already six units in different stages of production and, last week, the first of them was presented for ground tests. The first flight should be in 2023.

Be that as it may, success will now fuel American hypersonics. “The ARRW team designed and tested an air-launched hypersonic missile in five years,” celebrated Gen. Jason Bartolomei, program director at the Air Force.

Last year’s failures had led to a cut of almost US$ 160 million in the program for 2022, but now this tends to be reversed. It remains to be seen how hypersonics, weapons that can employ atomic or conventional warheads, will be integrated into US operational doctrine.