While available documents did not detail how many ARRW missiles the Air Force intends to buy, the request officially transitions the hypersonic weapon from its troubled development and testing phase and into formal procurement and production. The move comes after the Air Force considered cancelling the program last year after it completed its rapid prototyping effort in August 2024.

Made by prime contractor Lockheed Martin, ARRW is one of the two types of hypersonic weapons the Air Force’s is pursuing — the other being the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM), under development by RTX-subsidiary Raytheon.

ARRW is a boost-glide missile that can be launched from larger aircraft such as the B-52 Stratofortress bomber, and like all hypersonics can fly at speeds of Mach 5 or faster and maneuver during flight.

The fate of ARRW has been up in the air since March 2024 when the Air Force announced it didn’t include any funds to procure the missiles in its budget request for fiscal 2025. The decision was not a surprise, as the program faced a series of setbacks during its development phase — including at least one failed all-up-round flight test that occurred in 2023.

At the time, Air Force leadership said they would pause the ARRW program to analyze the data gathered during its flight test campaign, while also shifting focus to the development of HACM.

But news that ARRW was no longer on the chopping block was first hinted at by Gen. David Allvin, the service’s chief of staff, earlier this month during a House Armed Services Committee hearing.

“I will tell you that we are developing — and you’ll see in the budget submission, assuming it’s what we put forward — two different programs. One is a larger form factor that is more strategic [and] long range that we have already tested several times — it’s called ARRW. The other is HACM,” Allvin told lawmakers June 5.

The Air Force first awarded Lockheed Martin a contract worth up to $480 million to design and develop ARRW. Since then, the service has spent roughly $1.4 billion in research-and-development funds on the hypersonic weapon.

As for HACM, the Air Force is requesting $802.8 million in fiscal 2026 to continue the missile’s development, according to budget documents. The service received $466.7 million in FY’25 appropriations, and the increase in funds for this year are likely due to the program entering its flight test phase in the near future.

The Air Force intends to conduct five flight tests for HACM — two less than the service originally planned for — before the program begins rapid fielding efforts in fiscal 2027. The reduction in tests was caused by delays in nailing down the weapon’s hardware design, according to a recent report from the Government Accountability Office. 

Development of hypersonic missiles is considered a top priority for the Defense Department, especially as adversaries continue to advance their own weapons. Overall, the DOD is requesting over $3.9 billion in FY’26 across a number of programs at different stages of development, a defense official told reporters Thursday during a briefing at the Pentagon.

Along with the Air Force’s programs, those funds would also contribute to fielding the first operational battery of the Army’s Long Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW) — also known as Dark Eagle — by the end of FY’25 and continued development of the Navy’s Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) system.

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Air Force officials overseeing HACM told the Government Accountability Office that the program’s first design review was held in September 2024 — six months later than expected — because more time was needed to nail down the missile’s hardware design. As a result, the service will only have time to conduct five flight tests for HACM before it begins rapid fielding efforts in fiscal 2027.

“Program officials said that the delays will reduce the number of flight tests the program can conduct during the 5-year rapid prototyping effort from seven to five,” GAO said in its annual assessment of the Pentagon’s acquisition programs, published Wednesday. “These officials said that the program will still be able to establish sufficient confidence in the missile to declare it operational and to meet all the [middle tier of acquisition pathway’s] objectives with the reduced number of tests.”

Led by RTX subsidiary Raytheon, HACM is an air-breathing scramjet missile and one of the Air Force’s two main efforts to develop hypersonic weapons, which can fly at speeds of at least Mach 5 and are highly maneuverable mid-flight. Northrop Grumman is also on the program as a subcontractor that’s developing the scramjet engine.

Raytheon received a $985 million deal from the Air Force in 2022 to develop HACM under a middle tier of acquisition (MTA) contract, an alternative procurement pathway that requires systems to complete a rapid prototyping effort within five years. The company was later given a $407 million award in 2023 for additional work to enhance the HACM’s capabilities — bringing the contract’s total value to nearly $1.4 billion.

According to its budget request for fiscal 2025, the Air Force planned to mature HACM’s design and initiate flight test activities — including integration on the F-15E Strike Eagle and F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, as well as all-up-round free flight testing of missile prototypes. The service intended to build 13 missiles during the rapid prototyping effort to use as “test assets, spares, and rounds for initial operational capability,” the GAO report noted.

Program officials told GAO that HACM’s first design review was delayed to allow for more time to finalize the missile’s hardware design and “validate an initial configuration of the system for use in the first flight test,” the report stated. Another review to certify the system’s “fully operational configuration for use in the final flight tests” was scheduled for sometime in 2025. 

An Air Force spokesperson declined to comment on the current status of HACM’s development, citing “enhanced program security measures.” Raytheon did not respond to DefenseScoop’s request for comment.

Furthermore, GAO said that Raytheon is now “projecting that it will significantly exceed its cost baseline” for HACM, although Air Force officials told the watchdog that removing two flight tests could offer some savings. The program’s development cost as of January 2025 was estimated at close to $2 billion — a two percent increase from the watchdog’s 2024 assessment of $1.9 billion, according to the new report.

HACM would not be the Air Force’s first hypersonic missile to face challenges during development. Its other program — the Lockheed Martin-developed AGM-183A Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) — had a rocky test campaign. At least one of the weapon’s flight tests was deemed unsuccessful, prompting the service to shift priority to HACM’s development.

Issues during ARRW’s testing led the service to axe the weapon’s procurement in FY’25 so the Air Force could reassess the program for future budget requests, casting doubt on ARRW’s future. However, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin recently revealed that the service has included funds to buy ARRW missiles in its upcoming fiscal 2026 budget request.

“I will tell you that we are developing — and you’ll see in the budget submission, assuming it’s what we put forward — two different programs. One is a larger form factor that is more strategic [and] long range that we have already tested several times — it’s called ARRW. The other is HACM,” Allvin said last week during a House Armed Services Committee hearing.

Although both ARRW and HACM are hypersonic weapons, they each have different propulsion systems that give them different characteristics. ARRW is a large boost-glide missile that uses a rocket motor to achieve hypersonic flight and is thus limited to being carried by bigger platforms, such as the B-52 Stratofortress bomber. On the other hand, HACM is a smaller cruise missile powered by an air-breathing jet engines, or scramjet, meaning it can be launched from more tactical aircraft like fighter jets.

Despite their differences, Air Force officials have previously stated that both ARRW and HACM are “complementary” to one another.

Moving forward, the Air Force is working with Raytheon to create a new schedule for HACM that still follows the five-year rapid prototyping timeframe mandated for MTA programs, GAO noted in the report. The government watchdog also said the Air Force has altered HACM’s transition strategy to support faster delivery of more missiles, while also improving the weapon’s design for large-scale manufacturing and expanding the industrial base’s capacity for production.

The service currently plans to use the rapid fielding effort in FY’27 to deliver missiles developed during HACM’s initial prototyping phase and then iterate on the weapon’s design. That work will inform a concurrent major capability acquisition pathway program the Air Force will start production for in fiscal 2029, according to GAO.

“The program office stated that based on global power competition and urgency to address threats, the Air Force changed the focus of the HACM program from a prototype demonstration to a program that would deliver operational capability in fiscal year 2027,” per the report. “The program stated that, with this shift, it is focused on meeting schedule as the priority and maintaining velocity toward fielding an operationally relevant capability — the minimum viable product that meets user-defined performance requirements — in fiscal year 2027.”

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Following a troubled flight testing campaign, the Air Force decided not to include any funding to procure ARRW in its budget request for fiscal 2025. At the time, officials said it would take time to fully analyze and understand data gathered during the test campaign before fully committing to putting more money toward the system’s development or fielding.

But comments made by Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin on Thursday suggest the service has resolved to continue funding the ARRW program rather than end it.

“I will tell you that we are developing — and you’ll see in the budget submission, assuming it’s what we put forward — two different programs. One is a larger form factor that is more strategic [and] long range that we have already tested several times — it’s called ARRW,” Allvin said during a House Armed Services Committee hearing.

Developing hypersonic missiles has been a top priority for the entire Defense Department as U.S. adversaries continue to mature their own technology. The weapons are able to reach speeds of Mach 5 or higher and are highly maneuverable in-flight, making them difficult for air defense systems to intercept.

And while the Air Force, Army and Navy each have respective hypersonic missiles development programs, all of the weapons so far have yielded mixed results during flight test campaigns.

After a successful all-up-round test for ARRW in late 2022, the Air Force conducted three additional tests in 2023 and a final one in 2024 — but declined to share any results, casting doubt on whether all objectives were met during the campaign.

In 2023, then-Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall admitted to lawmakers that ARRW’s second test in March of that year was deemed unsuccessful. As a result, he said the service intended to reevaluate the program as it finished flight tests, but would shift focus to its other hypersonic missile program, known as the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM).

Furthermore, a 2024 report from the Pentagon’s weapons tester revealed that ARRW’s test campaign was also challenged by a lack of available infrastructure and insufficient means to collect critical flight data. 

Now, both ARRW and HACM are “continuing to develop and moving beyond [research, development, test and evaluation] and getting into the procurement range in the very near future,” Allvin told lawmakers Thursday.

Under development by Lockheed Martin since 2018, ARRW is a boost-glide missile that uses a rocket booster to reach hypersonic speeds, meaning the weapon is large and can only be launched via very big aircraft like the Air Force’s B-52 Stratofortress bomber.

On the other hand, HACM is a smaller, air-breathing scramjet hypersonic missile that is compatible with more aircraft, including fighter jets. RTX was tapped to develop a prototype design for HACM in 2022, and the service was expected to conduct at least 13 tests between October 2024 and March 2027 before production decisions are made, according to the Government Accountability Office’s annual Weapon System Assessment report released last year.

“The Air Force plans to transition HACM to the major capability acquisition pathway at either development start or production start in 2027, depending on what capabilities the Air Force is willing to accept and whether production facilities are ready,” the GAO report stated.

The Air Force declined to provide additional details regarding ARRW’s fate until the FY ’26 budget is approved.

Lockheed Martin deferred specific questions to the Air Force, but a spokesperson told DefenseScoop that the company “has full confidence in the maturity and production readiness of ARRW hypersonic-strike capabilities. We continue partnering with the U.S. Air Force to meet the urgent needs of our warfighters.”

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Put forward by HASC Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama and SASC Chairman Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the reconciliation bill would give a $150 billion boost to defense spending. By using the budget reconciliation process, Republican lawmakers are hoping to expedite funding towards 11 high-priority defense issues without threat of a Senate filibuster.

“This legislation represents a generational upgrade for our nation’s defense capabilities, including historic investments in new technology,” Wicker said in a statement. “This is about building the future of American defense, achieving peace through strength, and ultimately deterring war.”

The Golden Dome missile defense shield would receive $24.7 billion to help kick off the massive project, if the legislation is approved.

The vision for the effort was introduced via an executive order signed by Trump in January and looks to field a multi-layered, homeland defense architecture able to defeat a range of missile threats. As outlined in the EO, Golden Dome would comprise both existing Defense Department programs as well as nascent technologies — such as space-based sensors and weapons.

To that end, lawmakers added around $15.6 billion for space systems under “next-generation missile defense technologies,” according to the bill text. That includes $7.2 billion for development and procurement of new space-based sensors, $5.6 billion to develop space-based and boost phase intercept capabilities, and $2 billion for air-moving target indicator satellites.

The bill also puts money towards other emerging technology efforts. If approved, the legislation would add $2.4 billion to development of non-kinetic missile defense effects like electronic warfare and cyber capabilities. In addition, the Pentagon’s Multi-Service Advanced Capability Hypersonic Test Bed (MACH-TB) effort — which aims to accelerate flight testing for hypersonic weapons — would receive $400 million.

As for “layered homeland defense” initiatives, lawmakers are proposing $2.2 billion to accelerate hypersonic defense systems and $1.9 billion for improvements to ground-based missile defense radars. The bill would also add $800 million for expedited development and deployment of next-generation intercontinental ballistic missile defense systems.

Besides efforts related to Golden Dome, the reconciliation bill proposes additional funds towards other key defense priorities such as shipbuilding and munitions production capacity. Notably, lawmakers also allocated around $14 billion towards rapid fielding of emerging capabilities — including small unmanned aerial systems, command-and-control technologies and attritable weapon systems — as well as improving integration with the commercial sector.

“This legislation is a historic investment of $150 billion to restore America’s military capabilities and strengthen our national defense,” Rogers said in a statement. “America’s deterrence is failing and without a generational investment in our national defense, we will lose the ability to defeat our adversaries. With this bill, we have the opportunity to get back on track and restore our national security and global leadership.”

HASC will hold a markup session for the reconciliation bill on Tuesday where members can submit amendments, after which it will be sent to the House Budget Committee.

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Under the directive, titled “Iron Dome for America,” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is required to develop “a reference architecture, capabilities-based requirements and an implementation plan” to address emerging aerial threats against the U.S. homeland. The strategy, due to the president in the next 60 days, must focus on defense against ballistic, hypersonic, advanced cruise missiles and other aerial platforms.

“Over the past 40 years, rather than lessening, the threat from next-generation strategic weapons has become more intense and complex with the development by peer and near-peer adversaries of next-generation delivery systems and their own homeland integrated air and missile defense capabilities,” the EO states.

The directive comes after Trump promised to create a “great Iron Dome shield” over the United States in June during his presidential campaign, referencing the Israeli air defense system built by Rafael. While Israel’s capability is designed to intercept short-range rockets and artillery, it’s clear that Trump’s vision for America’s own Iron Dome shield considers a greater range of threats and technologies.

Notably, the order calls for development and deployment of “proliferated space-based interceptors” stationed on orbit that can defeat ballistic missiles during the boost stage of flight.

The inclusion of space-based interceptors will likely be a source of contention in the executive order’s execution, Todd Harrison, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told DefenseScoop. Fielding such weapons has been a controversial matter that was floated by the first Trump administration in 2018, but did not receive traction during President Joe Biden’s term.

The concept for space-based interceptors was a centerpiece of President Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative in the 1980s, which was abandoned due to technological immaturity and expensive price tags at the time. Critics referred to it derisively as a “Star Wars” project. But the cost of putting satellites on orbit has reduced drastically in recent years, largely due to advancements made by Elon Musk’s SpaceX business.

“When Ronald Reagan wanted to do it many years ago, luckily we didn’t. We didn’t have the technology then. It was a concept but we didn’t have” sufficient tech, Trump said Monday evening during remarks to lawmakers at his Trump National Doral resort in Miami. “Now we have phenomenal technology. You see that with Israel, where out of 319 rockets [launched against them] they knocked down just about every one of them. So I think the United States is entitled to that. And everything will be made right here in the USA, 100 percent.”

However, there are still technological limitations to the weapons that require additional study and analysis before the Pentagon can field them at scale, Harrison said.

“If you have a system that’s designed so that there’s always at least one interceptor within range, you could shoot down any one missile. But if someone launches a salvo of two missiles, the second will get through,” he said. “You would have to double the size of your constellation in order to shoot down two at once, and you would have to quadruple it to shoot down four at once. So it quickly becomes cost prohibitive the way it scales.”

Space-based interceptors would be ideal for threats posed by Iran or North Korea, neither of which currently have significant numbers of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). But against nations with larger ICBM arsenals like China and Russia — considered by the Defense Department as the United States’ most pressing military adversaries — the weapons aren’t as effective, Harrison added.

Given the growing importance of space as a warfighting domain, however, kinetic and non-kinetic space-based weapons will become more common in missile defense solutions, according to Tom Karako, director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. 

“It’s not necessarily going to be 10,000 things, it may be more limited,” Karako told DefenseScoop. “But the genie is out of the bottle. The past paradigms of strategic stability have kind of vaporized and vanished before our eyes over the last decade … The world has changed, and we’re going to have to change with it.”

Trump’s executive order prioritizes several ongoing space-based missile defense programs, as well. It calls for “acceleration of the deployment” of the Missile Defense Agency’s demonstration Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor Layer (HBTSS) satellites.

The directive also tasks the Space Development Agency to develop a custody layer within its Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA), a planned mega-constellation comprising hundreds of satellites carrying data relay, missile warning and missile tracking capabilities.

Harrison noted that SDA had previously considered incorporating a custody layer into its architecture as part of future tranches, and Trump’s order now gives the agency the green light to move forward.

A deployed custody layer, which continuously tracks and keeps eyes on enemy missile threats, would also contribute to the EO’s directive to deploy capabilities that can defeat missile attacks prior to launch, he added.

“Previously, they planned to just use other people’s systems and make kind of a virtual custody layer,” Harrison said. “I think that’s one of the biggest changes here, is they’re giving [SDA] the go-ahead for that.”

Space-based capabilities aren’t the only elements of Trump’s directive, as the executive order calls for “deployment of underlayer and terminal-phase intercept capabilities postured to defeat a countervalue attack.” That would likely mean bolstering the United States’ arsenal of ground-based interceptors with additional systems already available.

“The foundation for an Iron Dome for America needs to start with air and cruise missile defense,” Karako said. “That’s our biggest gap area. That’s our biggest, near-term vulnerability that we have very little capability against, and so we need to get after that.”

After submitting his plan for homeland missile defense to the White House, Hegseth has been tasked to conduct a subsequent review of theater missile defense postures. Per Trump’s executive order, the follow-on should include options for protecting forward-deployed troops; accelerating provisions of missile defenses capabilities to allies and partners; and increasing international cooperation on relevant technology development, capabilities and operations.

A large question for the Defense Department as it carries out its review will be the cost of developing and deploying such a large missile defense architecture. The order requires an accompanying funding plan that can be examined and included in the upcoming budget request for fiscal 2026, but the EO offers no insight into how much the Pentagon would have to spend.

Some previous cost estimates for a large-scale architecture with space-based interceptors have been upwards of $100 billion, although others have said it could be built for a fraction of that amount.

Harrison estimated the missile defense efforts outlined by Trump would require substantial long-term investment, likely costing billions of dollars per year over at least the next decade.

“That impacts the question of, are they going to request more defense funding overall or will this come at the expense of something else within the defense budget? It’s not clear, because the administration has not been all that forthcoming about their plans for the defense budget overall,” he said.

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The other transaction authority agreement is for Task Area 1 of MACH-TB 2.0, an initiative that broadly aims to expand options for the Pentagon to demonstrate and validate hypersonic weapons and related technologies. If all options are exercised, the deal has a performance period of five years and a total value of $1.45 billion — the single largest contract ever awarded to the contractor.

“We are honored to be selected to be part of the MACH-TB 2.0 integrated team. The nation is at a critical point in the need for rapid and affordable hypersonic flight testing to quickly develop and field hypersonic technologies and the MACH-TB program is filling that need,” Michael Johns, senior vice president of Kratos, said in a statement.

Under the agreement for Task Area 1, Kratos will conduct systems engineering, integration and testing “to include integrated subscale, full-scale, and air launch services to address the need to affordably increase hypersonic flight test cadence,” according to the company.

Kratos will lead an industry team for the contract that also includes Leidos, Rocket Lab, Stratolaunch and others.

First initiated by the Navy in 2022, the MACH-TB program intends to create new, low-cost options for testing hypersonic technologies in order to accelerate overall capability development and fielding. After conducting over 25 flight tests and creating a hypersonic boost glide testbed under MACH-TB 1.0, the Pentagon is now moving to transition that technology from design and concept demonstration to full-flight test capacity in fiscal 2025 under the follow-on MACH-TB 2.0 effort.

The program is being divided into three separate task areas, according to the Pentagon. Awards for the other two task areas have yet to be announced.

The Defense Department has several ongoing efforts across the military services and components to develop hypersonic technologies. Hypersonic missiles are able to reach speeds greater than Mach 5 and are highly maneuverable in-flight, making it difficult for traditional air defense systems to intercept them.

However, a limited amount of adequate testing infrastructure has hindered overall development and delayed fielding for several hypersonics programs.

Previously, Kratos served as a subcontractor for the initial MACH-TB 1.0 program. The company also announced it successfully flew its Erinyes test vehicle for the Missile Defense Agency’s first Hypersonic Testbed (HTB-1) experimental mission last year.

“Kratos is honored to receive the largest contract award in our company’s history, a testament of the value Kratos’ employees and team bring both to our Company and United States National Security,” Eric DeMarco, president and CEO of Kratos Defense and Security Solutions, said in a statement. “This programmatic milestone underscores our unwavering commitment to making upfront investments for rapidly developing, and being first to market with affordable, mission-critical solutions that meet the evolving needs of the warfighter.”

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The Army’s Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office and the Navy Strategic Systems Programs conducted the highly anticipated test Thursday at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, according to the Defense Department. The event marks the first live-fire test for the Army’s Long Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW) — also known as Dark Eagle — with a battery operations center and transporter erector launcher.

“This test builds on several flight tests in which the Common Hypersonic Glide Body achieved hypersonic speed at target distances and demonstrates that we can put this capability in the hands of the warfighter,” Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said in a statement.

The event also marked the second successful end-to-end flight test of the AUR in 2024, according to the Pentagon.

The Common Hypersonic Glide Body is a collaboration effort between the Army and the Navy to develop and field a hypersonic missile for each service. The Army intends to integrate the system into ground launchers for Dark Eagle, while the sea service plans to integrate it into a ship-launched hypersonic capability called Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS). 

As adversaries like China and Russia tout their own advancements in hypersonic missiles, the U.S. military has raced to field systems of their own and will soon move into the next phase of development — dubbed “hypersonics 2.0 and 3.0.” The high-speed weapons are able to maneuver through the atmosphere at speeds of Mach 5 or greater, making it difficult for enemy air defenses to detect and defeat them.

The successful AUR test for the Common Hypersonic Glide Vehicle comes after a series of prior aborted and failed events that have delayed fielding for both hypersonic weapons. The services previously called off tests due to problems with the system’s launcher, after which the Army and Navy revised their testing plans and schedule. 

Following a successful end-to-end flight test in June, Army acquisition chief Doug Bush told reporters on multiple occasions that the services would conduct one more key AUR test before the end of 2024 in order to decide whether to field the system next year.

The Army has already delivered the first LRHW capability — without the all-up rounds — to the 1st Multi-Domain Task Force, 5th Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment, 17th Field Artillery Brigade unit at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state. Meanwhile, the Navy is planning to field CPS aboard Zumwalt-class guided-missile destroyers and Virginia-class attack submarines in the next few years.

Data collected from the recent test will support plans to deliver the common hypersonic AUR for both ground- and sea-based fielding, according to a Pentagon news release. The Defense Department declined to provide any additional details regarding fielding timelines and expectations for both programs.

“This test marks an important milestone in the development of one of our most advanced weapons systems,” Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro said in a statement. “As we approach the first delivery of this capability to our Army partners, we will continue to press forward to integrate Conventional Prompt Strike into our Navy surface and subsurface ships to help ensure we remain the world’s preeminent fighting force.”

Leidos is the prime contractor for the Common Hypersonic Glide Body, while Lockheed Martin serves as the prime contractor for both the Army’s LRHW and the Navy’s CPS.

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Over the next couple of years, the Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC), the Pentagon’s organization dedicated to developing overarching joint operational and integrating concepts, plans to move into the next phases of hypersonic weapons development known as “hypersonics 2.0 and 3.0,” Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and JROC Chair Adm. Christopher Grady told DefenseScoop.

The effort will focus on analyzing exactly how the technology will contribute to closing future “kill webs” — that is, the multi-layered and multi-directional structure of attack leveraging assets from all domains, Grady said Nov. 9 in an exclusive interview during a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the University of Notre Dame’s new hypersonics testing facility.

“It gets back to the kill web. So, where do hypersonics fit into how we are going to fight?” he said. “We know that hypersonics allow us to get after time-critical, heavily defended targets. We know that hypersonics allow us to defeat adversary hypersonics. And then, we also know that hypersonics allow us to leverage hypersonic aircraft and spacecraft missions in those two domains.”

In recent years, the United States has raced to field hypersonic weapons capable of flying at speeds of Mach 5 or higher. In addition to their speed, hypersonics maneuver through the Earth’s atmosphere mid-flight, making them harder to detect and defeat compared to traditional ballistic missiles that have a more predictable flight path through space.

Both China and Russia are actively developing and testing their own hypersonic systems, putting pressure on the Pentagon to do the same. But the technology is extremely complex and individual programs have run into a number of hurdles — particularly during test campaigns — meaning the capability has yet to cross the finish line.

While program management for hypersonic weapons falls to the services, the JROC plays a role in identifying joint capability gaps and then establishing “large R requirements” for the entire Defense Department, Grady noted.

“This is the top-down approach. And so we try to write a really strong requirement that says, ‘This is the value proposition for hypersonics.’ And I think we’ve done a pretty good job,” Grady said. “We do things across capability portfolios now, so this fits into our kill web analysis that [the Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation office] and the rest run.”

But before the Pentagon can implement those next phases, the services must continue down the path to developing and testing their respective systems. 

The Army is working alongside the Navy to co-develop a common hypersonic glide body, which the Army will integrate into ground launchers for its version — known as the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW) or Dark Eagle — while the sea service plans to use a ship-launched capability called Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS).

Although both services reported a successful end-to-end flight test in June, a series of prior aborted and failed tests have delayed fielding for both weapons by at least a year. The Army is planning to conduct one more flight test for the LRHW by the end of the year to inform whether it can field the complete system to the first unit in 2025. Meanwhile, the Navy is continuing its test campaign for CPS, which it hopes to field aboard Zumwalt-class guided-missile destroyers and Virginia-class attack submarines in the next few years.

As for the Air Force, the service decided to not procure or continue development of the AGM-183A Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) in fiscal 2025 after years of inconsistent testing results. The Air Force is pursuing another air-launched hypersonic weapon — the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM) — and plans to begin its flight test campaign in FY ’25.

Broadly, the Defense Department has recognized mishaps during hypersonic flight test campaigns and is working to close those gaps through a number of efforts, including partnerships with academic institutions and international partners that can assist with test efforts.

A key benefit to working with universities on emerging technology development is that many have begun emphasizing both fundamental and applied research, serving as dual-use facilities for the Pentagon, Jeffrey Rhoads, vice president for research and professor at Notre Dame’s Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, told DefenseScoop.

“I would argue that universities, at least many of us, are stretching across that valley as far as we can,” Rhoads said in an interview. “I think, at the same time, the department and industry are stretching from the other direction to try to de-risk things writ large.”

Another focus is on taking advantage of adaptive buying strategies such as Middle Tier Acquisition — which many hypersonic programs use — to make technology transfer between government research organizations, industry and academic institutions to the Defense Department as quick as possible, Grady said.

He also emphasized the importance of working with Congress on getting flexible funding.

“The ability to move money within line items will be critical of the system that we have now with congressional oversight — that’s entirely appropriate,” Grady said. “We have to earn that trust from Congress and show them that we can do this, and we are embarking on methods to do that across the services and within the department.”

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