The Air Force on Monday awarded Lockheed Martin [LMT] a $988.8 million contract modification to continue work on the Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW), one of the service’s top hypersonic vehicle development programs.
The award concerns critical design review, test and production readiness support. The contract modification will definitize the contract terms, specifications and price, per the award notice. Work will be performed in Orlando, Florida, and is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 2022. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation funds are being obligated in the amount of $23 million at the time of award.
The Air Force awarded Lockheed Martin a $480 million contract in August 2018 to design and build the ARRW weapon. In March, the ARRW program passed its preliminary design review, and in June, the Air Force conducted the first captive carry flight test of a sensors-only version of ARRW aboard a B-52 bomber (Defense Daily, June 17).
ARRW is one of three hypersonic-related contracts Lockheed Martin holds with the Air Force. The other two are the Hypersonic Conventional Strike Weapon (HCSW) and the Tactical Boost Glide (TBG). Raytheon [RTN] is also developing a TBG prototype in a partnership with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Lockheed Martin recently unveiled plans to establish a new facility in Alabama to support its hypersonic work (Defense Daily, Sept. 16).