US Air Force Brings Back ARRW: Lockheed Gets $694 Million to Produce Hypersonic Missile It Once Shelved
The US Air Force has awarded Lockheed Martin $694 million to produce and field the AGM-183A ARRW hypersonic missile, three years after it stopped buying the weapon following failed tests.
Three years after it walked away from the AGM-183A Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon, the US Air Force is buying it after all. Lockheed Martin has received a $694 million contract for the production and fielding of ARRW, the service's first air-launched hypersonic missile, according to an Air Force announcement reported by Defense News.
The contract was awarded in late September through the Pentagon's Enterprise-Wide Agile Acquisition Contract. The Air Force did not say how many missiles it will buy or when they will be delivered, citing operational security.
How ARRW works
ARRW is a boost-glide weapon. A solid rocket motor accelerates it to more than five times the speed of sound, then releases a glide vehicle that manoeuvres through the upper atmosphere toward its target. The speed and unpredictable path are meant to make it very hard to intercept, and to let bombers like the B-52 hit heavily defended targets from long range.
A B-52H carrying an AGM-183A ARRW test missile. File photo: U.S. Air Force (public domain).
From cancellation to comeback
ARRW had a rough start. After a string of failed flight tests, the Air Force stopped planning to buy it in 2023 and put its money on the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM), a scramjet-powered weapon. Successful later tests and the urgency of competing with China's and Russia's hypersonic arsenals changed the calculation. In 2025 then-Chief of Staff Gen. David Allen told Congress ARRW would be revived, and the budget followed: about $387 million requested for fiscal 2026 and $452 million for fiscal 2027.
Air Force Secretary Troy Meink called the award a turning point in the service's advanced weapons roadmap. Chief of Staff Gen. Ken Wilsbach said fielding ARRW would let the Air Force hold targets at risk anywhere in the world.
Why it matters
The US has trailed China and Russia in fielding hypersonic weapons. The Army's Dark Eagle and the Navy's Conventional Prompt Strike are ground- and sea-launched; ARRW gives the Air Force a weapon that can be flown anywhere a bomber can reach. With HACM still in development, ARRW is the quickest way to put an air-launched hypersonic missile into service.
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