Lockheed Martin has secured a $694 million U.S. Air Force contract to produce and field the AGM-183A Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW), moving the air-launched hypersonic boost-glide missile from testing into production. The weapon will initially be integrated with the B-52 bomber, while Lockheed Martin expands its Troy, Alabama, facility to support manufacturing.
Awarded on 29 September, the contract reverses the Air Force’s 2023 plan to end ARRW procurement after unsuccessful flight tests. The service now identifies the weapon as its first hypersonic missile entering production, under an Enterprise-Wide Agile Acquisition Contract arrangement.
ARRW uses a solid-fuel rocket booster to accelerate a manoeuvring glide vehicle beyond Mach 5. After separation, the glide vehicle is designed to continue towards time-sensitive, high-value or heavily defended targets from standoff ranges. The B-1 has also been associated with testing of the weapon, although the B-52 remains the stated integration platform for the production capability.
Lockheed Martin has broken ground on a 47,000-square-foot expansion of Building P-20 in Troy, which will expand production capacity for the missile. The Air Force has not disclosed the number of weapons covered by the award or their delivery schedule, and the contract does not establish when ARRW will reach operational capability.