The US Air Force has awarded Lockheed Martin $694 million to produce the AGM-183A Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon, reversing its earlier move to end procurement of the hypersonic missile. The contract was awarded September 29, 2026, and announced October 26.
The Air Force statement, republished by ASDNews, identifies the Department of the Air Force as the awarding authority but names no subordinate contracting command. Missile quantities and delivery dates were withheld for operational security.
Launch failures were only part of the testing story
Three booster flight attempts failed in 2021. The missile did not leave its aircraft in April or December; in July, it separated but its booster did not ignite, as Air & Space Forces documented at the time.
Successful booster tests followed in May and July 2022. On December 9, a B-52 launched the first complete missile prototype, rather than a test focused on the booster, in a flight the Air Force initially described as successful.
The distinction matters: a subsequent Pentagon testing review, reported by DefenseScoop, found that malfunctioning range sensors had prevented assessment of the December flight's terminal phase. In the March 13, 2023 test, protective shrouds failed to eject properly during booster and glide vehicle separation, leaving glide and terminal performance data unavailable.
A procurement retreat, then a reversal
Congress removed planned purchases of 12 missiles from the fiscal 2022 budget, and the Air Force sought no procurement funding for fiscal 2023. On March 29, 2023, acquisition chief Andrew Hunter said the service did not intend to pursue further purchases, while retaining prototype flights to collect data.
The Air Force shifted emphasis to the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile, a separate weapon using an air breathing engine. ARRW testing nevertheless continued: the last planned prototype flight took place March 17, 2024, with the service declining to disclose detailed results.
By 2025, then chief of staff Gen. David Allvin was telling Congress that the service would buy ARRW. Procurement returned in the fiscal 2026 budget, as Air & Space Forces reports. The new contract makes that reversal tangible, although the public announcement does not detail the technical findings behind it.
Production is not an operational declaration
ARRW uses a rocket booster to accelerate beyond Mach 5 before releasing a maneuvering glide vehicle. The intended mission is to strike valuable, time sensitive targets from a distance, including targets protected by strong air defenses.
In its October 27 announcement, Lockheed Martin confirmed the $694 million award and said it had broken ground on 47,000 square feet of additional ARRW production space in Troy, Alabama. The company described the B-52 as the integrated launch platform.
That industrial expansion supports manufacturing; it does not establish that combat units have received deployable missiles. The announcements provide no operational fielding date, and the undisclosed quantity prevents a reliable calculation of the price per missile.