Air Force moves out on hypersonic cruise missile flight testing in FY25

Table Of Content

• Israel beefs up armored corps with new tank companies, for now and the future
• Air Force moves out on hypersonic cruise missile flight testing in FY25
• Air Force Awards $985M Hypersonic Cruise Missile Contract to Raytheon Technologies
• B-52 Bombers Make Rare Landing at Civilian Airport
• Why a Civilian Defense Employee Died After a C-17 Test Flight Last Year
• B-21, hypersonics and more: How digital development is driving industry innovation

Collins noted that ARRW is on track for a booster flight test before the end of 2020 and a full flight test next spring. The service has since started discussing a multi-mission, air-breathing missile dubbed “Mayhem” that would be larger than ARRW and could carry multiple types of payloads for airstrikes as well as missions like surveillance. In contrast, ARRW is a developmental boost-glide weapon that would be fired into the atmosphere and then use the energy from its rocket to fly toward its target. Under SCIFiRE, the USAF awarded a 15-month HACM preliminary design contract to Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Technologies. The new weapon system is being developed as part of a multi-year project arrangement between the US and Australia.

Israel beefs up armored corps with new tank companies, for now and the future

Raytheon and Northrop Grumman had previously worked together on a design as part of the HAWC program. Lockheed Martin and Aerojet Rocketdyne also teamed up on a missile that was tested under HAWC. In September 2022, the Air Force declared Raytheon, in cooperation with Northrop Grumman, the winner of the HACM composition.

Air Force moves out on hypersonic cruise missile flight testing in FY25

Hypersonic, high mach atmospheric flight is a relatively under-researched field, and the more data, the better. While hypersonic flight was first achieved in the late 1950s, and today’s ballistic missiles re-enter the atmosphere at Mach 18, new hypersonic weapons fly at high mach numbers entirely in the atmosphere. This subjects them to incredible levels of friction and pressure that were, until recently, not fully understood. The AGM-183A ARRW was one of several hypersonic missile programs that the U.S. government initiated after Russian and Chinese programs were publicized in the mid-2010s.

Air Force Awards $985M Hypersonic Cruise Missile Contract to Raytheon Technologies

Raytheon Technologies and Northrop Grumman have been working together since 2019 to develop, produce and integrate Northrop Grumman's scramjet engines onto Raytheon's air-breathing hypersonic weapons. Their combined efforts enable both companies to produce air-breathing hypersonic weapons, the next generation of tactical missile systems. The Air Force canceled the missile in 2023, but made the decision to carry out the last two tests and launch the final two developmental missiles.

Raytheon Wins Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile Contract

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall last year told lawmakers the ARRW program had “struggled” in testing, shortly after a March 2023 test failed. What can be seen of the missile in the pictures from yesterday's event at Edwards is fully in line with renderings that DARPA has previously released in relation to HAWC. It is a two-stage weapon with a large booster at the back and a narrower vehicle section in front with fins at its rear. DARPA is also now pursuing its own follow-on effort to HAWC, called More Opportunities with HAWC, or MoHAWC, which will help continue to advance relevant technologies.

B-52 Bombers Make Rare Landing at Civilian Airport

The AGM-183 Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon, or ARRW, is a tactical boost glide weapon—not air-breathing—that has had a spotty test record in recent years. It is intended to be carried on large platforms such as the B-52 bomber, whereas the HACM is expected to be launched from the F-15 as the initial platform. With an air-breathing motor, the HACM is also potentially a longer-ranged weapon than the ARRW. Scramjet engines use high vehicle speed to forcibly compress incoming air before combustion, which enables sustained flight at hypersonic speeds – Mach 5 or greater. By traveling at these speeds, hypersonic weapons, like HACM, are able to reach their targets more quickly than similar traditional missiles, allowing them to potentially evade defensive systems.

Why a Civilian Defense Employee Died After a C-17 Test Flight Last Year

Driven by a shared purpose to solve our customers’ toughest problems, our 90,000 employees define possible every day. Navy from 1989 to 2005, although the underwater top speed of the Russian subs is reportedly much lower than that of U.S. boats.” It is thought to be not as capable as America’s Virginia-class and is also somewhat slower. The Raytheon HAWC flew successfully in July, following a successful test in September 2021. The Lockheed Martin HAWC—with an engine developed by Aerojet—flew successfully in March.

Part of this continued collaboration will include using Australia’s test infrastructure for HACM’s first all-up-round flight tests. The Air Force chose Raytheon, which partnered with Northrop Grumman, over bids from Boeing and Lockheed Martin. All three companies had been working under Air Force contracts to develop technology that will be used in the fast-flying missile. In September 2022, the Air Force announced Raytheon as the winner of its (weirdly specific) $985,348,124 contract for developing the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM). Back in July, Air & Space Forces Magazine reported that the HAWC was essentially a “technology pathfinder” for the new HACM program.

The U.S. Air Force awarded Raytheon Technologies a $985 million contract to continue development of a new hypersonic missile. On Monday, the Air Force and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced that the weapon system successfully achieved Mach 5 flight and traveled 300 nautical miles at 60,000 feet. That’s an impressive feat, though the results don’t state exactly how long the missile achieved those hypersonic speeds.

In fact, the Air Force is already pushing ahead with two other missile systems, including the All-Up-Round AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon, which had its first successful launch off the coast of southern California on a B-52H Stratofortress back in December. Like turbofan engines, scramjets scoop up oxygen from the surrounding atmosphere to use as fuel. One key difference between the two is that a turbofan engine scoops up oxygen at subsonic speeds, while a scramjet scoops it up at supersonic speeds. More oxygen means more fuel for the scramjet engine, which enables it to propel the missile even faster.

Raytheon to receive $407M for 'enhancements' to Air Force hypersonic missile - DefenseScoop

Raytheon to receive $407M for 'enhancements' to Air Force hypersonic missile.

Posted: Fri, 12 Jan 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Both the “Future Hypersonics Program” and the Mayhem program would reach their preliminary design reviews around the end of fiscal 2021. As I previously wrote, “evasive maneuvers are difficult against hypersonic weapons because the weapons themselves are highly maneuverable. Using kinetic interceptors to shoot down a hypersonic missile would be like shooting a bullet with a bullet”—a complex operation. After ARRW’s cancellation, the Air Force forged ahead instead with the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM). In 2023, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall compared the two weapons, and stated HACM was “compatible with more of our aircraft and it will give us more combat capability overall” than ARRW. HACM is a smaller missile that can be carried by fighter jets, while ARRW was so large it could only be carried by bombers.

The bomber was located at Andersen Air Force Base on the U.S. territory of Guam in the Pacific. As one observer on social media noted above, similar photos were taken at Edwards Air Force Base in 2023 before a similar test. The contract starts to move the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile, or HACM, program out of the prototyping phase and into becoming an operational weapon that could be used in combat. According to the US Department of Defense’s (DoD) contract announcement, the task order will cover HACM’s design, development and initial delivery.

The Air Force said in Thursday’s release the U.S. and Australia will keep collaborating on HACM’s design and development under the SCIFiRE agreement. The contract marks the end of more than a year of competition between major defense contractors to prove their concept will work. The Pentagon asked Congress to approve $4.7 billion for hypersonic research in fiscal 2023, according to the Congressional Research Service.