AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile (AMRAAM replacement)

[Dragon029]

http://www.airforcemag.com/Features/Pag ... China.aspx

Air Force Weapons Program Executive Officer Brig. Gen. Anthony Genatempo told reporters in a June 20 interview here the service is working with Lockheed Martin, the Army, and the Navy to field the Joint Advanced Tactical Missile in 2022. Work began about two years ago.

“It has a range greater than AMRAAM, different capabilities onboard to go after that specific [next generation air-dominance] threat set, but certainly longer legs,” he said. “As I bring up JATM production, AMRAAM production is kind of going to start tailing off.”

The weapon is initially planned to fly in the F-22’s main weapons bay and on the Navy’s F/A-18, with the F-35 to follow. Flight tests will begin in 2021 and initial operational capability is slated for 2022, Genatempo said.

“It is meant to be the next air-to-air air dominance weapon for our air-to-air fighters,” he said.

The Air Force will buy its last AMRAAMs in fiscal 2026 as JATM ramps up, answering combatant commanders’ needs, Genatempo said.

Now we just need some of the juicier details; single or dual stage? What kind of seeker tech will it use?

One thing we can probably deduce safely is how it manoeuvres; Lockheed appears to be the contractor for this project, and they've been looking to use solid rocket divert thrusters in both SACM / CUDA and M-SHORAD; I don't see why they wouldn't do the same for this.

The Gen also mentions that aside from longer legs, the missile will have "different capabilities onboard to go after that specific [next generation air-dominance] threat set"; I wonder if that means we'll get a dual-mode radar+IR seeker; as I'd imagine that radar-VLO targets would be part of that "next-generation air-dominance threat set".

Edit: According to the reporter of the Air Force Magazine article, the AIM-260 will not use a 'ramjet' (presumably meaning it won't be air-breathing): https://twitter.com/rachelkaras/status/ ... 5033847808

[madrat]

Meteor, who?

[fidgetspinner]

http://www.airforcemag.com/Features/Pages/2019/June%202019/Air-Force-Developing-AMRAAM-Replacement-to-Counter-China.aspx

Air Force Weapons Program Executive Officer Brig. Gen. Anthony Genatempo told reporters in a June 20 interview here the service is working with Lockheed Martin, the Army, and the Navy to field the Joint Advanced Tactical Missile in 2022. Work began about two years ago.

“It has a range greater than AMRAAM, different capabilities onboard to go after that specific [next generation air-dominance] threat set, but certainly longer legs,” he said. “As I bring up JATM production, AMRAAM production is kind of going to start tailing off.”

The weapon is initially planned to fly in the F-22’s main weapons bay and on the Navy’s F/A-18, with the F-35 to follow. Flight tests will begin in 2021 and initial operational capability is slated for 2022, Genatempo said.

“It is meant to be the next air-to-air air dominance weapon for our air-to-air fighters,” he said.

The Air Force will buy its last AMRAAMs in fiscal 2026 as JATM ramps up, answering combatant commanders’ needs, Genatempo said.

Now we just need some of the juicier details; single or dual stage? What kind of seeker tech will it use?

One thing we can probably deduce safely is how it manoeuvres; Lockheed appears to be the contractor for this project, and they've been looking to use solid rocket divert thrusters in both SACM / CUDA and M-SHORAD; I don't see why they wouldn't do the same for this.

The Gen also mentions that aside from longer legs, the missile will have "different capabilities onboard to go after that specific [next generation air-dominance] threat set"; I wonder if that means we'll get a dual-mode radar+IR seeker; as I'd imagine that radar-VLO targets would be part of that "next-generation air-dominance threat set".

Edit: According to the reporter of the Air Force Magazine article, the AIM-260 will not use a 'ramjet' (presumably meaning it won't be air-breathing): https://twitter.com/rachelkaras/status/ ... 5033847808

Looking at the JNAAMs, LREW and K-77M my best guess is that the seeker will at least have a host AESA radar with a long range detection and tracking capability that far succeeds the mentioned missiles.

[gc]

Perhaps a two staged missile to take advantage of the reduced drag of dropping the booster and the commonality of having a SR AAM developed simultaneously. And i hope there is an dual mode IR/RF seeker to allow for a completely passive kill chain if weather conditions permit. That’s gonna be terrifying to any adversary.

[SpudmanWP]

Ahem.....

Only 30 years late to the party

[gc]

Ahem.....

Only 30 years late to the party

Easy to develop a concept but hard to execute it in reality. The D model AMRAAM was already pushing the current technological limits and managed to enter service in the recent years. The ‘real’ equivalent to the GD missile concept you showed is the SM-2 Blk IIIC with a Blk IIIB MU IR seeker and this missile is still in development.

[citanon]

Could they even fit a dual stage missile into the F-35/F-22 weapons bays?

[citanon]

Stephen Trimble may have gotten the scoop a couple of years ago:

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/artic ... et-442816/

And then Tyler Rogoway was all over that to, err, add color to the speculation:

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/1 ... ir-missile

Trimble did report at the time that it would be a 2 stage missile.

[sferrin]

Could they even fit a dual stage missile into the F-35/F-22 weapons bays?

They could fit a 4-stage missile in there, as long as the stages are small enough.

[sferrin]

The ‘real’ equivalent to the GD missile concept you showed is the SM-2 Blk IIIC with a Blk IIIB MU IR seeker and this missile is still in development.

Hardly. That's a 1500lb missile vs ~350 for the one in Spud's picture.

[SpudmanWP]

Easy to develop a concept but hard to execute it in reality.

Looking at the pic it appears that many of the sub-components were actual hardware in testing. It was certainly not just a paper missile.


They were only a year away from a test flight.

https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/thread ... ects.2548/

[wolfpak]

Would they use a 2-stage design on a rapid acquisition program? They're allowing only one year for flight test so to me it seems that they would go with proven technology. Has there been a 2-stage air to air missile flight tested? Wonder if they have an aircraft designed to carry it as well? Sounds like William Ropers vision of procurement.

[durahawk]

I guess the F-22 kind of makes sense for the Air Force, but I find it pretty dissapointing the Navy chose to integrate it first on the Super Hornet rather than the F-35. A longer stick has greater compound effects when the launching aircraft is still undetected upon launch...

Once again the Boeing fan club (NAVAIR) has different ideas on how to employ 5th Generation Aircraft.

[marsavian]

F-18 needs it more as it will be trying to duel at long range because it's not VLO. F-35 can sneak up and use any AMRAAM to good effect.

[quicksilver]

F-18 needs it more as it will be trying to duel at long range because it's not VLO. F-35 can sneak up and use any AMRAAM to good effect.

x2

And, the preponderance of Navy tacair is, and for the foreseeable future will be, SHs.