Air Force to Arm B-52 for Hypersonic Attack by Next Year

Related Video Above: Hypersonic Weapons

By Kris Osborn – President & Editor-In-Chief, Warrior Maven

When the Air Force arms an upgraded variant of its classic B-52 bomber, it will become the first service to deploy a hypersonic weapon, a massive development which could not come soon enough as far as the Pentagon is concerned.

The service will acquire the Air Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) as soon as next year, a development which of course introduces a paradigm-changing air attack possibility.

ARRW

“We are going to field hypersonic weapons very shortly,” Lt. Gen. David Nahom, Deputy Chief of Staff for Plans and Programs, told The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.

The Air Force may start by acquiring as many as 12 AGM-183 ARRW weapons in 2022, bringing the boost-glide hypersonic weapon able to hit targets at five times the speed of sound to war.

Certainly the range and speed of an ARRW, the B-52 might be in a position to targets and destroy enemy air defenses without placing itself within striking range, a situation which opens up new attack options for a large, non-stealthy aircraft. While the large B-52 is by all means capable of Stand-In weapons attacks, when armed with an ARRW hypersonic missile, it could bring new Stand-Off tactical options for commanders and possibly even function as a flying command and control node.