Lockheed Puts Hypersonic Weapon Through Captive-Carry Flight Test

Lockheed Martin completed a captive-carry test of a second hypersonic weapon prototype on the U.S. Air Force's B-52 Stratofortress bomber aircraft Saturday off the Southern California coast.

The test used tactical hardware and other instruments with the goal to gather mechanical, digital and thermal data for the AGM-183A Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon program, the company said Monday.

“This captive carry mission is the pre-cursor for our first booster test flight planned for early 2020s,” said Dave Berganini, ARRW program director at Lockheed's missiles and fire control business.

Lockheed plans to conduct further ground and flight tests in the next two years.

The ARRW project began with the development of a Tactical Boost Glide demonstrator under a joint Air Force-Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency initiative, according to the service branch.

TBG is designed to integrate with the ARRW payload and previously underwent two captive-carry tests.