The Government Accountability Office’s annual weapon system assessment also found that the Air Force is moving to field a hypersonic attack cruise missile in 2027, despite delays driving a compressed flight testing schedule.
Army leaders also discussed the future of their non-hypersonic long-range missile options, including tests planned for a newer munition.
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Next-generation modular radars and new composable weapon capabilities solve a critical problem for the U.S. and allied militaries.
Raytheon’s Advanced Technology president sheds light on the team’s behind-the-scenes R&D work to advance radars, hypersonics, and missile defense.
The test’s results could determine the ultimate fate of the Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon, or at least help "further a range of hypersonic programs."
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall last year said the service was “more committed” to the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile than the service’s other fast-flying design, the Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon.
Reducing cognitive overload on warfighters while improving “time to trust” for autonomous systems is a matter of design.
“We're very, very fixated on being competitive with the pacing challenge [of China],” said Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall. “I think the budget that we've submitted moves us forward — not quite as fast as we would like to, but it moves us forward in the right direction while maintaining current capabilities that are essential to the nation.”
The Air Force fired another all-up round test of the Lockheed Martin-made ARRW, but like a previous test that a top official later admitted fell short of its goals, the service won’t claim that this test met all its objectives.
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall told lawmakers Thursday that the service will make a decision on buying the hypersonic weapon after its prototyping phase concludes, a position seemingly at odds with testimony previously provided by the service’s acquisition lead.
The news comes after the Air Force’s top civilian revealed Tuesday that the missile’s most recent all-up-round test “was not successful” but stopped short of saying the service wouldn’t buy it.
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Following a recent disclosure by the Air Force that suggested the new hypersonic missile came up short during testing, Secretary Frank Kendall told lawmakers the service was "more committed" to another hypersonic program.
An Air Force press release said that the missile was launched in a second all-up-round test and met “several objectives,” but conspicuously left out claims of overall success.
Seeking to pivot to a new generation of air power by fielding platforms like the Next Generation Air Dominance Fighter, the Air Force is planning significant investments into future technologies, according to service budget documents, which also show that fiscal 2024 could be a turning point for hypersonics.
If HACM development continues to progress, the weapon could become the first scramjet-powered, hypersonic air-launched cruise missile to be introduced into the Air Force's inventory.