hypersonic attack cruise missile wiki

How hypersonic missiles work and the unique threats they pose – an aerospace engineer explains

Director, Center for National Security Initiatives; Professor of Aerospace Engineering Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder

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Iain Boyd receives funding from the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of Energy, NASA, Lockheed-Martin, and L3-Harris.

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An updated version of this article was published on May 24, 2023. Read it here .

Russia used a hypersonic missile against a Ukrainian arms depot in the western part of the country on March 18, 2022. That might sound scary, but the technology the Russians used is not particularly advanced. However, next-generation hypersonic missiles that Russia, China and the U.S. are developing do pose a significant threat to national and global security.

I am an aerospace engineer who studies space and defense systems, including hypersonic systems. These new systems pose an important challenge due to their maneuverability all along their trajectory. Because their flight paths can change as they travel, these missiles must be tracked throughout their flight.

A second important challenge stems from the fact that they operate in a different region of the atmosphere from other existing threats. The new hypersonic weapons fly much higher than slower subsonic missiles but much lower than intercontinental ballistic missiles. The U.S. and its allies do not have good tracking coverage for this in-between region, nor does Russia or China.

Destabilizing effect

Russia has claimed that some of its hypersonic weapons can carry a nuclear warhead. This statement alone is a cause for concern whether or not it is true. If Russia ever operates this system against an enemy, that country would have to decide the probability of the weapon being conventional or nuclear.

In the case of the U.S., if the determination were made that the weapon was nuclear, then there is a very high likelihood that the U.S. would consider this a first strike attack and respond by unloading its nuclear weapons on Russia . The hypersonic speed of these weapons increases the precariousness of the situation because the time for any last-minute diplomatic resolution would be severely reduced.

It is the destabilizing influence that modern hypersonic missiles represent that is perhaps the greatest risk they pose. I believe the U.S. and its allies should rapidly field their own hypersonic weapons to bring other nations such as Russia and China to the negotiating table to develop a diplomatic approach to managing these weapons.

What is hypersonic?

Describing a vehicle as hypersonic means that it flies much faster than the speed of sound, which is 761 miles per hour (1,225 kilometers per hour) at sea level and 663 mph (1,067 kph) at 35,000 feet (10,668 meters) where passenger jets fly. Passenger jets travel at just under 600 mph (966 kph), whereas hypersonic systems operate at speeds of 3,500 mph (5,633 kph) – about 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) per second – and higher.

Hypersonic systems have been in use for decades. When John Glenn came back to Earth in 1962 from the first U.S. crewed flight around the Earth , his capsule entered the atmosphere at hypersonic speed. All of the intercontinental ballistic missiles in the world’s nuclear arsenals are hypersonic, reaching about 15,000 mph (24,140 kph), or about 4 miles (6.4 km) per second at their maximum velocity.

ICBMs are launched on large rockets and then fly on a predictable trajectory that takes them out of the atmosphere into space and then back into the atmosphere again. The new generation of hypersonic missiles fly very fast, but not as fast as ICBMs. They are launched on smaller rockets that keep them within the upper reaches of the atmosphere.

Three types of hypersonic missiles

There are three different types of non-ICBM hypersonic weapons: aero-ballistic, glide vehicles and cruise missiles. A hypersonic aero-ballistic system is dropped from an aircraft, accelerated to hypersonic speed using a rocket and then follows a ballistic, meaning unpowered, trajectory. The system Russian forces used to attack Ukraine, the Kinzhal , is an aero-ballistic missile. The technology has been around since about 1980.

A hypersonic glide vehicle is boosted on a rocket to high altitude and then glides to its target, maneuvering along the way. Examples of hypersonic glide vehicles include China’s Dongfeng-17 , Russia’s Avangard and the U.S. Navy’s Conventional Prompt Strike system. U.S. officials have expressed concern that China’s hypersonic glide vehicle technology is further advanced than the U.S. system.

A hypersonic cruise missile is boosted by a rocket to hypersonic speed and then uses an air-breathing engine called a scramjet to sustain that speed. Because they ingest air into their engines, hypersonic cruise missiles require smaller launch rockets than hypersonic glide vehicles, which means they can cost less and be launched from more places. Hypersonic cruise missiles are under development by China and the U.S. The U.S. reportedly conducted a test flight of a scramjet hypersonic missile in March 2020.

Difficult to defend against

The primary reason nations are developing these next-generation hypersonic weapons is how difficult they are to defend against due to their speed, maneuverability and flight path. The U.S. is starting to develop a layered approach to defending against hypersonic weapons that includes a constellation of sensors in space and close cooperation with key allies . This approach is likely to be very expensive and take many years to implement.

With all of this activity on hypersonic weapons and defending against them, it is important to assess the threat they pose to national security. Hypersonic missiles with conventional, non-nuclear warheads are primarily useful against high-value targets, such as an aircraft carrier. Being able to take out such a target could have a significant impact on the outcome of a major conflict.

However, hypersonic missiles are expensive and therefore not likely to be produced in large quantities. As seen in the recent use by Russia, hypersonic weapons are not necessarily a silver bullet that ends a conflict.

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Raytheon and Northrop Grumman to co-develop USAF first HACM capability

Delivery of the first hypersonic attack cruise missile capability with operational utility is expected by 2027.

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The US Air Force (USAF) has awarded a contract to Raytheon Missiles & Defense and Northrop Grumman team for the first hypersonic attack cruise missile (HACM).

The $985.34m cost-plus-fixed-fee contract also includes performance incentives and an associated task order.

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According to the US Department of Defense’s (DoD) contract announcement , the task order will cover HACM’s design, development and initial delivery.

It will be based on the companies’ performance in different stages, including HACM’s critical design review, qualification, integration, manufacturing and evaluation.

Related work will be carried out at Raytheon’s site in Arizona, US. It is slated to complete by March 2027.

The new weapon system is being developed as part of a multi-year project arrangement between the US and Australia.

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Also called the Southern Cross Integrated Flight Research Experiment (SCIFiRE), the two countries entered this agreement in 2020 to develop HACM prototypes.

Under SCIFiRE, the USAF awarded a 15-month HACM preliminary design contract to Boeing , Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Technologies.

With a selection of the Raytheon SCIFiRE prototype design, the HACM programme will now operationalise this concept for integration with a fighter aircraft to deliver two leave-behind assets with operational utility.

Australia will also provide test infrastructure for HACM’s initial all-up-round flight tests, as its contribution to the SCIFiRE agreement.

USAF chief of staff general CQ Brown Jr said: “HACM will provide our commanders with tactical flexibility to employ fighters to hold high-value, time-sensitive targets at risk while maintaining bombers for other strategic targets.”

HACM, an air-launched, scramjet-powered hypersonic munition, is being developed to hold long-range, high-value targets in highly contested scenarios.

The development of HACM will allow the USAF to enhance interoperability with allies and partner nations and stay ahead of strategic competitors.

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US Air Force conducts final test of Lockheed’s hypersonic missile

This story was updated March 20, 2024, with a statement from Lockheed Martin.

The U.S. Air Force on Sunday carried out what is expected to be the final test of the hypersonic AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon .

The service did not say whether the test was successful.

In a statement to Defense News, an Air Force spokesperson said a B-52H Stratofortress carried out the test of the fully operational ARRW prototype , referred to as an all-up round test, after taking off from Andersen Air Force Base in Guam. The test was carried out at the Reagan Test Site, an Army facility in the Marshall Islands.

The Air Force declined to identify the test’s objectives, but said it “gained valuable insights into the capabilities” of the Lockheed Martin-made hypersonic weapon .

“This test acquired valuable, unique data and was intended to further a range of hypersonic programs,” the spokesperson said. “We also validated and improved our test and evaluation capabilities for continued development of advanced hypersonic systems.”

In a follow-up statement, Lockheed Martin said it is ready to deliver ARRW technology or other hypersonic capabilities to the Air Force.

“Following the recent end-to-end flight test, Lockheed Martin has completed the test program with full confidence in ARRW’s revolutionary capabilities, and we stand ready to deliver this fully-qualified, hypersonic solution to the U.S. Air Force,” the company said. “Building on ARRW’s industry-leading technology and testing success, Lockheed Martin can quickly deliver additional hypersonic-strike assets that can be rapidly deployed to the U.S. military.”

ARRW is one of the Air Force’s two main programs to develop an air-launched hypersonic weapon that could fly faster than Mach 5 and be highly maneuverable . China and Russia have invested heavily in their own hypersonic weapons, and the Pentagon is under pressure from Congress to show more progress toward fielding the United States’ own capabilities.

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall last year told lawmakers the ARRW program had “struggled” in testing, shortly after a March 2023 test failed.

Air Force officials said earlier this month that ARRW’s upcoming test would be its last, and the service plans to wrap up its rapid prototyping program this year. The service requested no funding to procure ARRW, nor conduct any research and development, in 2025.

Kendall has sounded a more optimistic tone about the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile program, and the fiscal 2025 budget request proposes $517 million to keep developing that program. The HACM weapon, developed by Northrop Grumman and RTX subsidiary Raytheon, is an air-breathing missile that the Air Force said would be smaller than ARRW and able to fly along “vastly different trajectories” than the boost-glide ARRW.

The Air Force assistant secretary for acquisition, technology and logistics told reporters earlier this month that the service will study the results of the final ARRW test to help it decide what hypersonic capabilities it will need.

Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.

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U.S. Air Force Wants Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile In Production

U.S. Air Force personnel with a Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile in September 2023.

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America’s Secret Hypersonic Weapon Is About to Stun the Pacific

A momentous test on the horizon could redefine aerial warfare.

• Signs point to the U.S. Air Force conducting an important hypersonic weapon test in the Pacific.
• A B-52 bomber armed with a live ARRW missile was photographed on Guam this week.
• ARRW was canceled last year, but there are so few hypersonic weapon tests that any test is useful.

Guam to “Kwaj”

Indications that a test might be forthcoming appeared on social media and in the Air Force’s media stream over the weekend. The Defense Visual Information Service published several photos of a B-52H Stratofortress heavy strategic bomber carrying a live ARRW missile. The bomber was located at Andersen Air Force Base on the U.S. territory of Guam in the Pacific. As one observer on social media noted above, similar photos were taken at Edwards Air Force Base in 2023 before a similar test.

In addition to the photos, another social media user on Twitter (above) pieced together several Notices to Airmen and Navigation Warnings in the vicinity of Kwajalein Atoll. Notices to Airmen , also known as NOTAMs, are meant to temporarily keep civilian aircraft out of a described area for a particular amount of time, such as a missile test. Navigation warnings , or NAVWARNs, similarly apply to sailors, commercial shipping, and private shipping. Together, the NOTAM and NAVWARNs issued cover not only the projected flight path of a missile from the launch point to Kwajalein Atoll, but the flight areas of special aircraft that would monitor the test—particularly the launch and terminal impact phases.

Kwajalein Atoll is a U.S. government test site in the Marshall Islands—an independent country. The atoll supported several atmospheric nuclear tests in the 1950s, and is now part of the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site. Today, the atoll is used as a bullseye for a variety of missile tests, particularly Minuteman III missiles launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Broken Arrow

The AGM-183A ARRW was one of several hypersonic missile programs that the U.S. government initiated after Russian and Chinese programs were publicized in the mid-2010s. The ARRW was designed as a high speed conventional missile that could quickly take out mobile and other time-sensitive targets. In 2018, Flight Global claimed that the weapon reaches speeds of up to Mach 20, or 15,345 miles an hour.

ARRW suffered from developmental issues, including a number of failed tests. The Air Force canceled the missile in 2023, but made the decision to carry out the last two tests and launch the final two developmental missiles. Hypersonic , high mach atmospheric flight is a relatively under-researched field, and the more data, the better. While hypersonic flight was first achieved in the late 1950s, and today’s ballistic missiles re-enter the atmosphere at Mach 18, new hypersonic weapons fly at high mach numbers entirely in the atmosphere. This subjects them to incredible levels of friction and pressure that were, until recently, not fully understood.

After ARRW’s cancellation, the Air Force forged ahead instead with the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM). In 2023, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall compared the two weapons , and stated HACM was “compatible with more of our aircraft and it will give us more combat capability overall” than ARRW. HACM is a smaller missile that can be carried by fighter jets, while ARRW was so large it could only be carried by bombers . HACM is also believed to have a shorter range, owing to its smaller size. This also suggests that a bomber can carry more HACMs than ARRWs, enabling a single plane to attack more targets in wartime.

Waiting for a Test

Although there are clear signs and portents of an ARRW test , nobody outside of the U.S. government knows when it will take place… or if it’s already happened. The Air Force typically announces tests within 72 hours of their taking place, so we are within the envelope of a test that took place earlier in the week. If it hasn’t happened yet, the clock is ticking—the NOTAMs and NAVWARNs both have expiration dates.

Kyle Mizokami is a writer on defense and security issues and has been at Popular Mechanics since 2015. If it involves explosions or projectiles, he's generally in favor of it. Kyle’s articles have appeared at The Daily Beast, U.S. Naval Institute News, The Diplomat, Foreign Policy, Combat Aircraft Monthly, VICE News , and others. He lives in San Francisco.

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The US Air Force has awarded Raytheon Missiles and Defense a $985 million contract to develop and demonstrate Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile prototypes.

HACM will be an air-launched, scramjet-powered hypersonic weapon designed to hold high-value targets at risk in contested environments from standoff distances.

According to Raytheon, HACM is a first-of-its-kind weapon developed in conjunction with the Southern Cross Integrated Flight Research Experiment (SCIFiRE), a US and Australia project arrangement .

The Air Force awarded three 15-month SCIFiRE contracts in June 2021 to Boeing Co., Lockheed Martin Corp., and Raytheon Technologies Corp. to complete preliminary designs of a hypersonic cruise missile.

The HACM program will now operationalize the Raytheon SCIFiRE prototype design for fighter aircraft integration and deliver two leave-behind assets with operational utility. Raytheon will work with Northrop Grumman on delivering the prototypes.

HACM is an air-breathing, scramjet powered munition. Scramjet engines use high vehicle speed to forcibly compress incoming air before combustion, which enables sustained flight at hypersonic speeds – Mach 5 or greater. By traveling at these speeds, hypersonic weapons, like HACM, are able to reach their targets more quickly than similar traditional missiles, allowing them to potentially evade defensive systems.

“HACM is a powerful example of developing and integrating combat capabilities alongside our partners from the beginning,” said Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. CQ Brown, Jr. “HACM will provide our commanders with tactical flexibility to employ fighters to hold high-value, time-sensitive targets at risk while maintaining bombers for other strategic targets.”

“We have over a decade of cooperation with our Australian allies in the advancement of hypersonic technologies, and now we will bring that shared knowledge to bear to address urgent national defense requirements,” said Andrew Hunter, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics.

Through the SCIFiRE agreement, the US and Australia will continue collaborating on HACM design and development, including using Australian test infrastructure for the initial all-up-round flight tests.

Air Vice Marshal Robert Denney, AM, Head of Air Force Capability for the Royal Australian Air Force, said SCIFiRE is providing an opportunity to understand and influence the future of hypersonic weapons development and acquisition.

“SCIFiRE demonstrates our commitment with the US to strengthen capability outcomes, deepen our alliance and strengthen our cooperation as we meet emerging challenges and support regional endeavors.”

The Air Force plans to deliver a HACM capability with operational utility by fiscal year 2027.

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Large-scale air alert announced in Ukraine: Reports of cruise missile launches

Air alert has been declared throughout Ukraine, according to the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Around midnight on May 8, Russia attacked Ukraine with several groups of Shahed-type attack drones. Explosions were heard in Kharkiv and Poltava regions.

At 03:59, the Ukrainian Air Force reported a missile in the area of Bilopillia, Sumy region, heading southwest; and later a cruise missile in Mykolaiv region heading toward Kirovohrad region.

Monitoring publics reported the launch of cruise missiles from Tu-95MS aircraft.

In addition, at night, Russian media reported explosions in the temporarily occupied Luhansk. According to them, a missile attack was launched on an oil depot. Part of the city was left without electricity due to damaged power lines.