The test of the prototype of a hypersonic weapon, carried out by the United States this March, turned out to be unsuccessful, acknowledged Frank Kendall, head of the US Air Force.
Last Friday, the Air Force reported on the test carried out on March 13, in what was the second launch of a fully operational prototype of its AGM-183A supersonic missile, developed under the Air Launch Rapid Response (ARRW) program. for its acronym in English).
Unlike the report issued last December on a previous test, -which clearly indicated that the missile “completed its flight path” and that “all targets were hit”-, this one now limited itself to announcing that the test “complied with several of the objectives” and that the team’s engineers and testers “are collecting data for further analysis.” Such a formulation raised suspicions that some inconveniences had occurred during the last trial.
Speaking on Tuesday before a panel of the House Appropriations Committee, Kendall clarified the situation: “The [prueba] What we just did was unsuccessful. We didn’t get the data we needed.”
The senior official told lawmakers, as part of a session on the Department of Defense’s annual budget request, that his military branch is more focused on its other major program, the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM, for its acronym in Spanish). in English), and that the prospects for the ARRW will be determined after analyzing the data from the last trial and possibly carrying out two more trials.
The Air Force detailed in its fiscal year 2024 budget request that it would complete development of prototypes and flight tests of the AGM-183A that year, and requested $150 million to do so.
The AGM-183A missile, developed by Lockheed Martin, is considered the first ARRW-type weapon in the US arsenal. It uses a sophisticated booster that is placed under the wing of B-52H Stratofortress bombers to accelerate the speed of the projectile, from which a glider detaches that carries its explosive payload towards the target.
“In Arms Race”
Hypersonic weapons are capable of reaching five times the speed of sound, in addition to maneuvering and changing their direction and altitude, which today makes their interception impossible.
As early as 2021, a senior US official confessed that the US hypersonics program is not as advanced as China’s or Russia’s. Therefore, as he put it, Washington needed to “catch up quickly” in order to catch up with Beijing and Moscow.
That same year, Kendall confirmed that the US and China are engaged in “an arms race” to develop the most lethal hypersonic weapons. with RT
