Lockheed Martin AGM-183 ARRW

Military spending rose 14% over President Biden’s four-year term to $841.4 billion in the fiscal 2024 appropriations bill signed into law last December.

Our roundup of the main aerospace and defense stories making the news this week.

Facing a reduction to its expected budget next year, the military cuts back on near-term aircraft procurement.

The fifth test of the AGM-183A all-up round in 15 months yielded a familiarly vague statement from the Air Force about the results.

The ARRW is currently deployed to Andersen AFB, Guam, where it is expected to be tested on a B-52 soon.

The only air-launched missile with a hypersonic glide vehicle in the Pentagon’s weapons road map sports a history as up and down as its skip-glide trajectory.

The U.S. Air Force launched an All-Up-Round AGM-183A Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon in a recent test but is tight-lipped about whether objectives were met.

The service is evaluating the Boeing-developed Load Adaptable Modular (LAM) pylon.

Scramjet testing has scored several breakthroughs, but the path forward for the Pentagon’s portfolio of hypersonic glide vehicle projects is unclear.

The test on March 13 of the Lockheed Martin AGM-183 Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) “met several objectives,” but not all.

U.S. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall says he is encouraged by recent test successes for Lockheed Martin’s Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon, despite having previously expressed concern about the program.

The Booster Test Flight at the Point Mugu Sea Range off California will mark the first of several flight test missile releases to support the Lockheed Martin AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW).

The missile forms a critical element of the Pentagon’s fast-track plan to develop a range of high-speed stand-off strike and cruise weapons to counter new Chinese and Russian hypersonic capabilities.