A $694 million contract with Lockheed Martin to produce the AGM-183A ARRW hypersonic missile has been awarded by the US Air Force, according to Air Data News and The Aviationist. Signed on 29 September and made public on 26 October 2026, the contract marks a historic milestone: ARRW becomes the first hypersonic weapon to enter production for the US Air Force.
The award comes after a programme that has moved from repeated setbacks in its early years through a sustained series of flight tests, and then a period of genuine uncertainty over whether the Air Force would buy the weapon at all.
What the AGM-183A ARRW Is and How It Works
ARRW is a boost-glide weapon. A solid-fuel rocket booster accelerates the missile beyond Mach 5, then releases an unpowered glide vehicle that can reach speeds up to Mach 15, according to The Aviationist. The system is designed to strike high-value, time-sensitive targets that are protected by advanced air defences, where speed and a compressed flight profile work together to complicate any defensive response.
As The Aviationist notes, ARRW's origins lie in the Air Force and DARPA Tactical Boost Glide programme. Development work by Lockheed Martin got under way in 2018, and by 2019 the weapon was undergoing captive-carry trials aboard a B-52H Stratofortress. Further background on the aircraft involved is available through our Aircraft Search.
A Programme That Nearly Did Not Survive
The road to production was anything but smooth. Three launch attempts in 2021 all ended in failure, and it was not until May 2022 that the programme achieved its first successful booster test, with an ARRW dropped from a B-52H surpassing Mach 5 for the first time, as Air Data News reports. December 2022 brought the first successful test of a complete all-up-round missile, though a subsequent all-up-round test in March 2023 ran into difficulties.
Political support for the programme was equally uncertain at times. Speaking to lawmakers in April 2023, then-Air Force acquisition chief Andrew Hunter indicated the service had no plans to procure ARRW, as both Air Data News and The Aviationist report. The stance reversed course in 2025, when then-Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin appeared before Congress and confirmed the service's intention to buy the weapon, according to Air Data News.
Testing That Rebuilt the Case
Confidence in ARRW was rebuilt substantially through two key tests. According to Air Data News, a B-52H launched the missile in March 2024, successfully demonstrating its capacity to strike a land target. In a separate 2024 trial, The Aviationist reports that the weapon was fired from Guam against the Reagan Test Site in the Pacific, replicating the demands of a 4,000-kilometre operational mission.
Together, those tests addressed two of the most pressing operational questions: whether the weapon could reliably hit a fixed land target, and whether it could perform over the distances relevant to a real-world theatre such as the Indo-Pacific. The B-52H Stratofortress is confirmed as the initial operational platform; integration with the B-1B Lancer has also been pursued, according to Air Data News and The Aviationist.
The Contract and What Comes Next
According to The Aviationist, the $694 million contract was placed under the Department of the Air Force's Enterprise-Wide Agile Acquisition Contract framework. Operational security concerns have led the Air Force to withhold details of how many missiles have been ordered and when deliveries are expected, with both Air Data News and The Aviationist citing that reasoning.
Budget figures offer a clearer picture of the intended scope of investment. The FY2026 budget allocated $362 million to restart production and begin procurement of ARRW, while the FY2027 request seeks a further $452 million for procurement alongside $296 million for ARRW Increment 2 research, as Air Data News reports. Looking further ahead, Air Force planning documents indicate that annual ARRW expenditure is expected to fall between $556 million and $621 million each year from 2028 through to 2031.
Increment 2, if funded, would add a terminal seeker, a data link, hardware changes and cost-reduction work. Critically, it would allow ARRW to engage moving targets such as warships, a capability absent from the current version, Air Data News reports.
Where ARRW Sits in the Wider Hypersonic Picture
ARRW is not the Air Force's only hypersonic programme. The Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM), developed by Raytheon, uses a scramjet air-breathing engine rather than a boost-glide approach and is aimed at tactical aircraft rather than bombers. HACM remains in flight testing, according to Air Data News. The two weapons serve different roles and different platforms, which means they are more complementary than competing in the Air Force's planning.
For those following the broader landscape of defence procurement and aerospace policy, our recent reporting on digital air traffic control in Canada illustrates how contentious and drawn-out the path from technology trial to operational deployment can be, even in less politically charged domains.
The Bottom Line
The production contract for the AGM-183A ARRW represents a significant step for US hypersonic ambitions. A programme that was close to cancellation in 2023 has now secured its first production award, underpinned by two years of test results that demonstrated both range and accuracy. The outstanding questions are how many missiles the Air Force will ultimately buy, how quickly they will be delivered, and whether the Increment 2 funding in the FY2027 budget survives the appropriations process intact. Our Manufacturer Search carries further background on Lockheed Martin's programmes.
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