The Air Force is looking to bring back the AGM-183 ARRW with $1 billion in funding until FY2030, while also beginning to work on an Air-Launched Ballistic Program (ALBM) derived from the ARRW.
The U.S. Air Force is reviving the AGM-183A Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) hypersonic missile program with a $345.7 million request in its FY2027 budget, which would be used for the weapon’s Increment 2 phase. The service also wants to commence design activities for a new Air-Launched Ballistic Missile (ALBM) derived from the ARRW, which would receive $50 million from the ARRW funding.
Additionally, the budget request mentions the ARRW will be integrated with the B-1B Lancer bomber, an effort underway for a few years now. So far, test missions saw the ARRW employed only by the B-52H Stratofortress.
The service formally told lawmakers in March 2023 that it did not intend to continue the program, following three failed tests in 2021 and one on Mar. 13, 2023. The 2022 and 2023 budge requests had spending plans removed and allocations made for buying only one unit of the missile to complete the planned test campaign and collect vital data, before the service decided to redirect focus on the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM) program.
However, movement to revive the ARRW already began in 2024, after the Pentagon reported on Sep. 26, 2024, the award to Lockheed Martin of $13.4 million in additional Research Development Test and Evaluation (RDT&E) funds for the ARRW. The award thus brought the total value of the ARRW to $1.3 billion.
As the budget request documents now reveal, two Acquisition Decision Memorandums (ADM) were signed on Mar. 18, 2025, and Mar. 5, 2026, as Middle-Tier Acquisition (MTA) route for the ARRW. Prior to that, in June 2025, then USAF chief Gen. David Allvin hinted at a possible return of ARRW before the House Armed Services Committee (HASC), while detailing budget proposals for hypersonic weapons.
“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,” said Allvin. “One is a larger form factor that is more strategic long range that we have already tested several times – it’s called ARRW.”
Fresh funding sought for AGM-183 ARRW
As mentioned earlier, in the second volume of the RDT&E, the service seeks $345.7 million for the ARRW in FY2027, followed by $548 million in FY2028, $620 million in FY2029 and $242 million in FY30, reaching a total of $1.7 billion. Of the $345 million sought in for FY2027, the Air Force said in the budget request it plans to spend $296 million for the program’s Increment 2 phase.
“The INC 2 technology efforts such as but not limited to integrating pre-planned product improvements, design, trade studies, hardware upgrades, facilitization, affordability initiatives, and testing,” says the service
This is what the Air Force said in the justification for the ARRW’s RDT&E prototyping:
“Prototyping enables a key linkage between research and development in the lab and fielding advanced technologies to the warfighter. ARRW accelerates the integration of technologies into a hypersonic system and the transfer of new hypersonic technologies enabling a responsive, long range strike capability. Throughout this program element is hypersonic development, which incubates and matures new technologies, processes, and resources for the development and demonstration of hypersonic technology including, but not limited to, infrastructure advancements, digital engineering, open systems architecture, modeling and simulation, analytics, and high performance computing environments.”
The service then emphasized the need for continued testing to collect data to refine the technology and lay the engineering and scientific groundwork for developing future weapons:
“The Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) project integrated Air Force and DARPA enabled system technologies enabled this concept to be fielded as a long range prompt strike capability. ARRW designed, developed, manufactured, and tested a number of prototype vehicles to inform decisions concerning ARRW acquisition and production. Additionally, future developments will look to mature and integrate existing technologies to improve performance [..] of hypersonic weapons. Investing in hypersonics development will enable the collection of valuable data […] allowing hypersonic programs to leverage and build upon each other.”
For the ALBM, which the wording suggests would be derived from the ARRW, the service will spend $49 million in FY2027 to “standup new program office and begin ALBM design activities leading to a critical design review.”
“The Air-Launched Ballistic Missile (ALBM) project integrates Air Force and other system technologies to develop, design, test, manufacture, and field an air-launched, long-range strike capability that complements existing hypersonic weapons. ALBM will mature existing hypersonic weapon technologies to rapidly test, which will inform future production decisions early in the acquisition lifecycle,” said the document.
In a HASC hearing, @RepJimBanks asks Under Secretary LaPlante why there are no plans to move AGM-183 ARRW, the United States’ only prototyped hypersonic missile, forward?
Answer: There is a plan, but we have to brief you in a SCIF (classified setting). 👀 pic.twitter.com/F4vq7Wv3nX
— Colby Badhwar (@ColbyBadhwar) February 15, 2024
The ARRW is an aeroballistic-type hypersonic missile, functioning on the Boost Glide Vehicle principle. Solid Rocket Motor (SRM) boosters from the ground – or in the ARRW’s case dropped from a high-flying aircraft – ‘boost’ a Hypersonic Glide Vehicle (HGV) and release it just outside the atmosphere. Upon reaching hypersonic speeds, the HGV separates and glides to its target at speeds up to Mach 15.
B-1B and ARRW
Integrating the B-1B with the ARRW is a part of the B-1B Modernization program, of which the External Heavy Stories Pylon and Hypersonic Integration efforts are key components. “The Hypersonic Integration Program successfully demonstrated the B-1B’s ability to execute a captive carry of a 5,000-pound class store and the release of a proven weapon shape from a Load Adaptable Modular (LAM) pylon,” previously said the service.
The B-1B has already been tested with Boeing’s Load Adaptable Modular (LAM) pylon in 2024, following which the company was revealed to have received an Air Force contract in its FY2026 budget requests. It can also be inferred from the latest budget documents that the LAM is part of the hypersonic weapon integration effort.
The U.S.’s next-gen hypersonic missile, AGM-183A ARRW (Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon), was spotted under a B-52H bomber’s wing at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam.
Despite rumors of ARRW’s cancellation in March 2023, testing appears ongoing.
“The AGM-183 ARRW is currently in… pic.twitter.com/HYxLfpjLkp
— Venik (@venik44) March 3, 2024
Boeing had previously said the idea was to shift hypersonic weapons’ testing from the B-52 to the B-1 using the new pylon, while increasing by 50% the BONE’s payload. The company says the “Air Force intends to use the B-1 and pylons to test hypersonic weapons in the near term.”
Boeing additionally explained the B-1 can accommodate six pylons, each capable of loading two 2,000-pound-class weapons or a 5,000-pound-plus-class future weapon. The pylons will be installed on the external hardpoints that were initially present on the B-1B and later removed to meet post-Cold War nuclear arms reduction treaties.
