US Air Force successfully tests Trump’s ‘Super-Duper Missile’ – First air-launched hypersonic weapon

The United States Air Force has successfully tested the first air-launched hypersonic missile, flying at over 5 times the speed of sound or 4,000 miles (6,100 m) per hour, the USAF said.

The AGM-183A Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) was carried aloft in a B-52 Stratofortress bomber and launched off the coast of California last Friday (9th). A 'boost-glide' weapon, its rocket booster took it past the hypersonic barrier before the glider part separated and glided to its designated target area where it detonated. The missile is developed by the aircraft manufacturer Lockheed Martin.

The AGM-183A became known as the 'Super-Duper Missile' after then US President Donald Trump said in 2020 that the US was developing a "super-duper missile', which he said would fly at 17 times the speed of sound, which is most likely an exagerration.

Russia, China and the United States are rapidly developing hypersonic weapons as they would be impossible to shoot down with existing air-defense missiles. There is currently no defensive weapon that can shoot down hypersonic missiles, which are capable of carrying either conventional or nuclear warheads.

They thus have a tremendous advanatge over cruise missiles, which also travel within the Earth's atmosphere, are subsonic (less than the speed of sound) and can be shot down by existing air defenses.

Hypersonic missiles are different from Inter-Contrinental Ballistic Missiles that nuclear powers depend on for delivery of nuclear bombs between continents, travelling upwards into space and using the Earth's gravity to accelerate on their downward arc and approach a target such as a city at tremendous speed. Hypersonic missiles travel within the Earth's atmosphere.