Test team detonates hypersonic missile warhead

EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. — Recently, the 780th Test Squadron successfully detonated an AGM-183A Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon warhead for the first time.

The first-of-its-kind test for the air-to-ground, rocket-powered, high-altitude, hypersonic missile collected data on the lethality of the unique weapon.

The unique nature and shape of the warhead required a lot of firsts for everyone involved, according to the test’s manager, David Spiker 780th TS.

Some of the firsts were the new and unorthodox design and construction of the test arena, the test procedures and equipment, the warhead’s fragmentation data collecting and the post-test data processing to ensure the warhead’s effects have been accurately characterized.

The 780th TS successfully designed and conducted the test to ensure the customer’s data requirements were met using new and improved test tools, technologies, and techniques.

This successful test positioned Eglin’s test team to remain at the forefront to support the testing of hypersonic weapons long into the future.

The ARRW program is a rapid prototyping project that will leverage cutting-edge technologies to deliver a conventional hypersonic weapons capability to the warfighter in the early 2020s.

The weapon system provides combatant commanders the capability to destroy high-value, time-sensitive targets.  ARRW expands precision-strike weapon systems’ capabilities by enabling survivable rapid response strikes against heavily defended targets.

The Air Force designed the ARRW booster test vehicle to achieve the high speeds necessary to deliver the ARRW glide vehicle and embedded ordnance package to designated targets required by U.S. combatant commanders.

Story by Samuel King Jr.