The Air Force, which is leading development of the AIM-260, or Joint Advanced Tactical Missile, requested $368 million for first-time production, plus $300 million in a separate annual “Unfunded Priorities List” the military services submit to congressional defence committees. The Navy has asked for $301 million.
Analysts at Melius Research said last year the missile could become a $30 billion programme depending on how many missiles are produced — a much-needed boon for Lockheed Martin on the heels of a second-quarter earnings report that flagged $1.6 billion in charges and a potential $4.6 billion tax accounting liability.Minimising its losses while ramping up manufacturing on the new, long-range weapon is pivotal for Lockheed. The F-35 fighter, the defence giant’s largest source of revenue, is at peak production rates, and the company has lost out on several high-profile programmes, most recently the stealthy F-47 fighter jet to Boeing Co.
“Profitable growth at MFC is extremely important for Lockheed Martin,” Melius analyst Scott Mikus said of the company’s missiles and fire control division. “It is Lockheed’s highest-margin segment and should be its fastest-growing segment due to the strong domestic and international demand.”
“The key will be can they limit or avoid future charges on the classified missile program, which is believed to be the AIM-260,” he added.
When it is eventually fielded — the Air Force won’t say when — the weapon will become the most advanced US air-to-air missile, a role long held by increasingly sophisticated versions of the RTX Inc, AIM-120 AMRAAM, which was introduced in 1993. The Air Force declined to say what developments gave the service confidence to move into production now.
Air-launched weapons that can shoot down planes at extreme ranges came into the spotlight in May, when Pakistani jets used Chinese-made PL-15 missiles to down Indian aircraft more than 100 miles away without risking return fire, experts say. MBDA’s Meteor, which has similar capabilities, has been available for nearly a decade but has not used in combat.
“Our potential adversaries have witnessed our ability to provide air superiority, and US competitors have evolved in response,” the Air Force said in a statement. “An air-to-air missile capable of defeating advanced threat systems is essential to maintaining US air superiority.”
In last year’s annual report on Chinese military power, the Pentagon said the Chinese air force had likely declared the PL-17 air-to-air missile operational in 2023, saying the PL-15 follow-on “is believed to be able to strike targets from 400 kilometres (248 miles).”
The new US missile “will have increased range over existing air-to-air weapons and will be effective in a variety of threat scenarios,” the Air Force said. A Ukrainian Air Force spokesman said in 2023 that the AIM-120 model supplied to his country has a range of about 100 miles.
The weapon would add to Lockheed Martin’s line of US-fielded missiles, including the latest model Patriot interceptor, the THAAD system, and LRASM anti-ship and JASSM cruise missiles. A Lockheed Martin spokesman declined to comment about the programme, referring questions to the Air Force.
The AIM-260 is designed to fit in the internal weapons bays of the F-22 and F-35 fighters, but the Air Force said it would also be integrated with F-16 and F-15 jets. Former Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Brown told a Senate Armed Services committee panel in March 2023 that the missile also might be installed on the service’s new unmanned Collaborative Combat Aircraft, which is now in test flights.
Over the past 15 years, the Air Force, Navy and Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency — which explores novel weapons technology — have spent more than $350 million on rocket motors, warhead development and a program called TR3. This program investigated advances in propulsion, advanced networking, guidance and control algorithms, engine power and “thermal management, and packaging and interfaces for carriage” on 5th generation fighters, the Air Force said.
The service branch declined to disclose the production contract details, including whether the company would share cost overruns.
Lockheed Martin first received the classified development contract for the missile in August 2017. Two years later, then-Air Force Weapons Program Executive Officer Brig. Gen. Anthony Genatempo said the service hoped to field the missile by 2022.
This week, the Air Force declined to say when the AIM-260 would be operational, saying each service branch would use “specific criteria” to determine that.
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