US Air Force abandon the problematic hypersonic missile AGM-183a Arrw: what is the reason

On March 29, the Assistant Minister of the US Air Force from procurement Andrew Hunter said this at the Committee of the House of Representatives for the Armed Forces, Bloomberg reports. "The Air Force does not intend to carry out further ARRW purchases after the prototype testing program," he said.

Hunter did not say why the Air Force refused this program, but it happened a few days after the recent prototype test was unsuccessful - it was reported that the rocket was lost during the flight with the rocket. At the same time, the official considers it advisable to conduct additional research and continue the development of this type of weapon that has failed the last test. The secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall also agrees with this opinion.

According to him, although he treats Arrw not very well, there is still hope that the program will survive, depending on the results of the next two tests. In this regard, Breaking Defense warders write that the breakdown of the ARRW program is a blow to the Pentagon's efforts to create an arsenal of hypersonic weapons, which, as high -ranking officials warn, is already in service with Russia and China.

Although the ARRW prototype was regarded as a potentially the first active hypersonic weapon of the United States, the program was in the initial stage with a number of unsuccessful trials. Representatives of Lockheed Martin, the main contractor of the program, in an interview with Breaking Defense stated that the company "devoted to the development of hypersonic technology in the accelerated time to meet the most important needs of national security.

" However, on March 28, Kandall himself confessed that the Air Force was now "more committed" to the creation of a hypersonic winged rocket of Hypersonic Attack Cruiser (HACM) from Raytheon Technologies. As an argument, he cited the fact that HACM is compatible with a large number of American aircraft and will generally provide air forces with more combat capability.