U.S. Air Force Moves AGM-183A ARRW Hypersonic Missile Into Production

The $694 million contract marks a major reversal for the Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon, which the Air Force nearly cancelled in 2023.

The U.S. Air Force has announced on Oct. 26, 2026, that it awarded Lockheed Martin a $694 million contract to begin production of the AGM-183A Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW). The contract represents a significant turnaround for a program that the service initially sought to cancel in 2023, following a series of unsuccessful flight tests.

According to the Department of the Air Force, the contract was awarded on Sept. 29 under the Department of War’s Enterprise-Wide Agile Acquisition Contract framework. Earlier this year, the service added a $345.7 million request in its FY2027 budget which would be used for the weapon’s Increment 2 phase.

“This is a turning point in our advanced weapons roadmap,” Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink said in the announcement. “By moving ARRW from test to production, we’re providing our combatant commanders with a credible, high-speed strike weapon capable of penetrating the most advanced anti-access and area-denial systems.”

The transition to production is intended to provide U.S. combatant commanders with a high-speed, long-range strike capability designed to penetrate advanced air defense systems and strike time-sensitive and high-value targets, says the press release.

B-52 Stratofortress crews from the 23rd Expeditionary Bomb Squadron, Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota and the 49th Test and Evaluation Squadron, Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, participated in hypersonic weapon familiarization training at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, Feb. 27, 2024. | Source: U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Pedro Tenorio “Fielding ARRW enhances our ability to hold targets at risk anywhere around the world,” said Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen. Ken Wilsbach. “This hypersonic weapon provides the Joint Force a flexible and rapid response option for highly contested environments.”

The Air Force has not disclosed the number of missiles ordered or their expected delivery dates, citing operational security concerns. Nevertheless, the contract now confirms that the AGM-183 ARRW will be the U.S. Air Force’s first hypersonic weapon, which could be fielded on both the B-52H Stratofortress and the B-1B Lancer.

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.

A U.S. Air Force B-52H Stratofortress loaded with two AGM-183 ARRW missiles. | Source: Courtesy photo via U.S. Air Force 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.

An illustration depicting the boost glide concept applied to the AGM-183A ARRW and its flight profile. | Source: Airman Magazine/U.S. Air Force 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.