Lockheed Martin announces successful ARRW Hypersonic Boosted Test Flight

The successful flight demonstrated the weapon’s ability to reach and withstand operational hypersonic speeds, collect data for use in further flight tests, and validate safe separation from the aircraft to deliver the glide body and warhead to designated targets from significant standoff distances.

Dave Berganini, vice president of Hypersonic and Strike Systems at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control said that the need for hypersonic strike capabilities is critical to the USA, with the successful test helping to maintain ‘an accelerated and rigorous timeline’.

Additional booster and all-up-round test flights will continue throughout 2022, before reaching Early Operational Capability (EOC) in 2023.

Hypersonic weapons provide a rapid response, time critical capability to overcome distance in contested environments using high speed, altitude and manoeuvrability. 

The technology has continued to present complex engineering challenges, Lockheed Martin said in a statement. Going Mach 5, sometimes even faster, generates extreme levels of heat, driving the need for innovative materials, sensors and electronics to withstand such speeds throughout its journey.