Security News > 2021 > June > US Air Force announces plan to assassinate molluscs with hypersonic missile

The United States Air Force has issued a strangely specific threat to certain mollusc species living in the area of an upcoming weapons test.

US military website The Warzone recently spotted that in an environmental report relating to future tests at the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site around Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, the USAF stated that a test of its AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon hypersonic boost-glide vehicle, or ARRW, would lead to four top-shell snails and up to 90 giant clams being killed.

The test of the ARRW was originally scheduled for 5 April, but the missile embarrassingly failed to detach from its B-52H mothership, causing the launch to be aborted.

The test has since been rescheduled for sometime in July.

The AGM-183A is a two-stage hypersonic missile being developed by Lockheed Martin.

Top-shell snails, described in the report as "Nocturnal, herbivorous, marine gastropod mollusks", live around the Illeginni Islet test site "In submerged hard pavement reef areas, including intertidal and/or inshore rocky areas, at a density of up to 0.09 individuals/m2."

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2021/06/22/usaf_snail_clam_missile_plan/