Air Force Awards Hypersonic Weapon Contract | Aero-News Network
Aero-News Network
RSS icon RSS feed
podcast icon MP3 podcast
Subscribe Aero-News e-mail Newsletter Subscribe

Airborne Unlimited -- Most Recent Daily Episodes

Episode Date

Airborne-Monday

Airborne-Tuesday

Airborne-Wednesday Airborne-Thursday

Airborne-Friday

Airborne On YouTube

Airborne-Unlimited-07.07.25

Airborne-NextGen-07.08.25

AirborneUnlimited-07.09.25

Airborne-AffordableFlyers-06.26.25

AirborneUnlimited-06.27.25

Sun, Aug 19, 2018

Air Force Awards Hypersonic Weapon Contract

Lockheed Martin To Develop A Second Prototype System

The U.S. Air Force has awarded a contract not to exceed $480 million to Lockheed Martin Missiles & Fire Control to begin designing a second hypersonic weapon prototype. This contract will provide the critical design review, test and production readiness support for the Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW).

"We are going to go fast and leverage the best technology available to get hypersonic capability to the warfighter as soon as possible," said Secretary of the Air Force Heather A. Wilson.

The ARRW effort is one of two hypersonic weapon prototyping efforts being pursued by the Air Force to accelerate hypersonic research and development. The Air Force is using rapid prototyping authorized by Section 804 of the FY16 National Defense Authorization Act to explore the art-of-the-possible and to advance these technologies to a capability in 2021.

Leaders from the Department of Defense, Missile Defense Agency, Air Force, Navy and Army signed a memorandum of agreement June 28 to work cooperatively on hypersonic boost glide technology development. "The Joint Team requires the right mix of agile capabilities to compete, deter and win across the spectrum of competition and conflict," said Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein. "We must push the boundaries of technology and own the high ground in this era of great power competition and beyond."

This undefinitized contract action allows the government to meet urgent needs by authorizing the contractor to begin work before reaching a final settlement on contract terms and conditions, to include a final negotiated price. The contract is expected to be definitized within 180 days of award.

The Air Force's other hypersonic weapon rapid prototyping effort is called the Hypersonic Conventional Strike Weapon (HCSW). The ARRW and HCSW efforts are developing unique capabilities for the warfighter and each has different technical approaches. The ARRW effort is "pushing the art-of-the-possible" by leveraging the technical base established by the Air Force/DARPA partnership. The HCSW effort is using mature technologies that have not been integrated for an air-launched delivery system.

The Armament Directorate of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center is providing program management of these prototyping efforts.

(Source: U.S. Air Force news release)

FMI: www.af.mil

Advertisement

More News

KidVenture Educational Activities Lineup At EAA AirVenture 2025

Youth Explore With Hands-On Builds, RC Airplanes, Flight Sims, Much More KidVenture is located just north of the EAA Aviation Museum, at Pioneer Airport, and has arranged a myriad >[...]

Aero-News: Quote of the Day (07.07.25)

“About nine decades ago, Amelia Earhart was recruited to Purdue, and the university president later worked with her to prepare an aircraft for her historic flight around the >[...]

Airborne 07.07.25: Sully v Bedford, RAF Vandalism, Discovery Moving?

Also: New Amelia Search, B737 Flap Falls Off, SUN ‘n FUN Unveiling, F-16 Record Captain Sully Sullenberger, the pilot who saved 155 people by safely landing an A320 in the Hu>[...]

Aero-News: Quote of the Day (07.08.25)

"It is critically important for North American flight safety that Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) violations are avoided. All pilots must familiarize themselves with updates to >[...]

Airborne-NextGen 07.08.25: Joby in Dubai, Army Electra, Archer iin Abu Dhabi

Also: Hackers v Aviation, Discovery Moving?, Gogo Galileo HDX, EVE to Costa Rica Joby Aviation announced its electric air taxi successfully completed a series of VTOL wingborne tri>[...]

blog comments powered by Disqus



Advertisement

Advertisement

Podcasts

Advertisement

© 2007 - 2025 Web Development & Design by Pauli Systems, LC