Air Force Bomber Completes Hypersonic Missile Test Amid China, Russia Arms Race
On 5/13/21 at 1:01 PM EDT
A B-52 has completed the first successful off-ground test of a hypersonic missile being developed by the U.S. Air Force, as the Pentagon races against China and Russia to develop the next generation of weapons.
A B-52 Stratofortress bomber flew a 13-hour round trip to Alaska from Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana to test data transmission and target sensing for the AGM-183 air-launched rapid response weapon or ARRW on May 5, according to an Air Force statement released on Thursday.
Owner of Gaza Apartment Building Was Warned by Israeli Military to Evacuate
USAF B-52 bomber conducts simulated hypersonic kill chain employment 11 May 2021 (Last Updated May 11th, 2021 12:23)
The US Air Force’s (USAF) B-52 Stratofortress bomber has demonstrated a simulated hypersonic kill chain employment.
Share Article
A B-52 Stratofortress from Barksdale AFB sits on the ramp at Eglin AFB. Credit: US Army / Sgt Michael Parnell.
Carried out during the ongoing Northern Edge 21 exercise, the missile strike involved the use of targeting data from sensors positioned more than 1,000nm away.
During the nearly 13-hour sortie from Barksdale Air Force Base (AFB) to Alaska, US, and back, the B-52 was able to receive target data from sensors through the All-Domain Operations Capability experiment (ADOC-E).
Air Force conducts successful hypersonic missile component test during Northern Edge exercise stripes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from stripes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
A
B-52 Stratofortress from the 49th Test and Evaluation Squadron,
Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, conducted a successful simulated hypersonic kill chain employment from sensor to shooter and back during
During the more than 13-hour sortie from Barksdale AFB to Alaska and back, the B-52 was able to receive target data from sensors via the All-Domain Operations Capability experiment, or ADOC-E, more than 1,000 nautical miles away miles away at
Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. Once it received the data from the ADOC-E, the bomber then was able to successfully take a simulated shot of the target from 600 nautical miles away using an AGM-183 Air Launched Rapid Response Weapon.
The ARRW is being developed by aerospace and defense contractor Lockheed Martin through the Air Force Armament Directorate, an Eglin AFB-headquartered enterprise.
During the Wednesday test, the B-52 received target data from more than 1,000 miles away and successfully took a simulated shot from nearly 700 miles away, according to a 53rd Wing news release. The test was conducted by the 49th Test and Evaluation Squadron (49th TES), a geographically separated unit of the 53rd Wing headquartered at Louisiana s Barksdale Air Force Base.
“We were really exercising the data links that we needed in order to complete that kill chain loop, and then get the feedback to the players in the airspace that the simulated hypersonic missile was fired and effective,” Lt. Col. Joe Little, 53rd Test Management Group deputy commander, said in an Air Force news release announcing the successful test.