Lockheed Wins ARRW Hypersonic Missile Contract

Lockheed already won the previous hypersonic missile, the Hypersonic Conventional Strike Weapon (HCSW, pronounced HackSaw). That missile is a conventional missile intended to go faster than Mach 10. That missile appears to be conventionally powered solid rocket based. I'd conjecture its derived from the ATACMS missile since that was what was used to boost the scramjet powered testbeds. The contract for HCSW is worth $928M.

It turns out, Lockheed has also won the contract for the ARRW missile, Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon. This weapon is an air launched derivative of the tactical boost glide tech demonstrations that Lockheed already did. The ARRW is supposed to glide back at Mach 20. The ARRW has been assigned the designation of AGM-183A. Lockheed have the weapon ready for production in 36 months. That would be...a surprise. The contract is worth $780M.

Interestingly, the USAF awarded the contract a year ago and was forced to recompete it. Lockheed's proposal came back both compliant and detailed enough. Apparently both Boeing and Raytheon also resubmitted proposals. Boeing failed to do a boost glide proposal (normal ballistic instead) and wanted to use different boosters for the dev and production vehicles, incurring more risk. Raytheon failed to give enough detail on the glider.

None of the contracts made so far seem to be for an air breather.

www.flightglobal.com...

a reply to: anzha
Might be wrong but i think HCSW is an airbreather. It was referred to as a cruise missile recently.

Very surprised by them already pushing ARRW for deployment in a couple of years. If they get that thing into service that quickly - a hypersonic affordable standoff capability has some very interesting implications.

a reply to: mightmight

They have said HCSW is not an air breather. HCSW is more like the Russian hypersonic missile.

Whether they are telling the truth or not...or the journalists are being accurate... *shrug*

a reply to: anzha
They have said that?
In the article you linked it says *Hacksaw”, an air-ingesting missile*

A while back it was referred to as a cruise missile
www.defensenews.com...

I dont think rocket propelled cruise missiles are a thing. Booster and Scramjet in this case? shrug indeed

Hopefully all that RATTLRS work won't go to waste.

a reply to: mightmight

I missed the "ingesting" bit for some reason. Mea culpa.

Other sources have stated the HCSW was not derived from the HAWC effort. You can do very long range rocket propelled missiles that do aerodynamic rather than ballistic flight. I agree I am not sure I'd call them cruise missiles. What that means in this case is a good question: 7 minutes at Mach 10 is 840 miles. Ten minutes is 1200 miles...

If I am wrong, I am wrong though.

a reply to: anzha

Aerojet Rocketdyne successfully completed two hot-fire tests of a rocket motor designed to boost an air-launched tactical glide hypersonic vehicle during its initial phase of flight.

The tests, which were done under simulated extreme cold and hot conditions, took place on an undisclosed “recent” date at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) at Edwards AFB in California, Aerojet Rocketdyne said.

The motors were tested at extreme temperatures to verify they would perform as expected across the full range of anticipated operational conditions, the company says.

And, mightmight, I was very wrong about the HCSW:

The USAF’s other hypersonic programme is an air-breathing, ram-jet-powered cruise missile called the Hypersonic Conventional Strike Weapon (HCSW) and is also being developed by Lockheed Martin. According to USAF specifications, the hypersonic cruise missile must be capable of being carried on fighter and bomber aircraft and have precision strike capability against high-value, time-critical fixed and relocatable surface targets in a single or multi-theater challenged environment.

I'd think that counts as a scramjet rather than ranjet, but ok...

www.flightglobal.com...

“All of the fundamental research in hypersonic aerodynamics is United States (work),” Griffin told reporters last week at the Space & Missile Defense Symposium in Huntsville, Ala. “We did not choose to weaponize the results of that research. Our adversaries have chosen to weaponize it. That’s the challenge. We will respond.”

breakingdefense.com...

It wont take the USA to get up to speed.Remember when the Chinese validated the new thrusters.It was NASA who put one into the X37b for testing first.Morals are good but worth bupkis when missiles start flying..