The U.S. Air Force awarded this week a contract to Lockheed Martin Missiles & Fire Control for the development of a second hypersonic weapon prototype.
The weapon’s review, testing, and production readiness support will all be provided by Lockheed Martin, as part of the Air Force’s Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) program. In the process, Lockheed Martin’s only limitation is that they cannot exceed $480,000,000 in expenditures.
ARRW represents the second effort by the Air Force to advance hypersonic research and development. They want to see it in use by warfighters in 2021, and leaders from the Department of Defense, Missile Defense Agency, Air Force, Navy, and Army have all signed an agreement to see that goal realized.
“The Joint Team requires the right mix of agile capabilities to compete, deter and win across the spectrum of competition and conflict,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein said. “We must push the boundaries of technology and own the high ground in this era of great power competition and beyond.”
The final details of the contract with Lockheed Martin have yet to be defined. The government is valuing speed over bureaucracy in this case and has authorized the company to begin work before settling on the details. Final details should be reached within 180 days.