Posted on 12/16/2022 8:33:30 AM PST by SeekAndFind
The Air Force successfully fired an air-to-ground hypersonic missile that reached speeds more than five times the speed of sound in a test off the southern California coast, officials said Monday.
The test of the All-Up-Round AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon on Friday was the first launch of a full prototype operational missile, the Air Force said in a press release.
The missile was released from a B-52H Stratofortress and detonated in the terminal area, showing "all objectives were met," according to the release.
"The ARRW team successfully designed and tested an air-launched hypersonic missile in five years," said Brig. Gen. Jason Bartolomei, Armament Directorate Program executive officer. "I am immensely proud of the tenacity and dedication this team has shown to provide a vital capability to our warfighter."
The 412th Test Wing at Edwards AFB, California, executed the ARRW test flight, officials said.
ARRW is designed to "enable the U.S. to hold fixed, high-value, time-sensitive targets at risk in contested environments," according to the release.
In October, the Army and Navy collected data on their hypersonic missile programs during tests at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
The Army is aiming to have offensive hypersonic strike capability ready by next year. The Missile Defense Agency is also taking part in testing for the development of systems to combat adversaries' hypersonic weapons.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
We started making these way back late 40’s and in the 50’s.
Lockheed AQM-60 Kingfisher
Maximum speed: Mach 4.3
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_AQM-60_Kingfisher
Typical bureaucrats!!
Excerpt: The Kingfisher was capable of evading the vast majority of weapons systems it was used to test, despite the systems being designed to destroy hypersonic missiles in flight. This created much embarrassment at the USAF and considerable political fallout. This led to the discontinuation of production in 1959 and the cancellation of the project in the mid-1960s.[3]
“all objectives were met,”
Meaning that the missile had all the right pronouns.
As did the engineers who designed it.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/advanced-maneuver-in-china-hypersonic-missile-test-shows-new-military-capability-11637545843
This is one of many articles over the past couple of years that show the situation. We've been in an arms race with china for missiles that can destroy the other sides ability to fight before they can react and which are way way faster than any of our defensive systems can throw at them. And we've been losing it badly.
The missile worked, so the engineers probably did NOT have "all the right pronouns".
I wonder if all this missile tech will finally spur the aviation industry to get it done too.
” This created much embarrassment at the USAF and considerable political fallout. “
Reminds me of the early 80’s when working for Northrop and the navy admitting they could not stop the Soviet SS-N-22 Sunburn missile. No reliable defense existed against a supersonic sea skimmer.
We were working on a target drone to simulate the Sunburn and I did a lot of reading on the navy anti missile tech of the time.
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