Article Summary: The U.S. Air Force and Navy are developing the AIM-260, an advanced, long-range missile set to enhance air-to-air and strike capabilities significantly.
-Designed as a successor to the AIM-120 AMRAAM, the AIM-260 promises greater range, speed, and resistance to enemy jamming. The missile features fewer fins for improved aerodynamic performance, advanced seeker technology, and enhanced resilience against electronic warfare.
-Live-fire tests have been ongoing, with the missile likely operational soon. Integration on platforms like the F/A-18 and F-22 will further extend U.S. air dominance, particularly crucial in potential conflicts against highly capable adversaries such as China and Russia.
The AIM-260 Missile Could Transform America’s Air-to-Air Combat Edge
The United States Air Force and the Navy are quietly preparing to deploy a highly secret breakthrough air-to-air, air-to-surface, and ground missile, a mysterious new weapon both services publicly acknowledge but say little about.
The Joint Advanced Tactical Missile AIM-260 is a sleek, long air-fired missile configured for optimal speed and range, according to an interesting write-up in The War Zone.
AIM-260 Advanced Technology
TWZ says the key requirements for the AIM-260 are known to include substantially greater range than the existing AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) and that the weapon is engineered to be faster than the AIM-120 as well, according to available images or renderings of the missile.
“All three AIM-260A renders show the same core missile design optimized for high speed and low drag with just four fins at the tail end. For comparison, the existing AIM-120 has four tail fins and another four along the middle of its body,” TWZ states.
Live-fire testing has been underway for many years, and the expectation is that the AIM-260 will fire from an F/A-18 Super Hornet and F-22. Given this, there is little reason to imagine the weapon would not also arm the F-35.
New Range & Speed
Given the known performance parameters of existing advanced fighter jets, the question of longer range is quite significant.
The F-35, for example, has shown it can see and destroy groups of 4th-generation jets from ranges where it is not detected, so the ability to fire a faster, more precise, and longer-range air-to-air missile would significantly improve this advantage.
There are many areas where air-fired weapons can be enhanced and improved upon, and both the Air Force and the Navy have extensive experience upgrading weapons.
It would not be surprising if the AIM-260 could fire off-boresight like an AIM-9X, meaning it could change course and redirect in flight to attack targets on the side of or behind an attacking aircraft.
The AIM-9X and AIM-120D have greatly improved the F-22 in terms of range, guidance accuracy, and hardening.
Hardening Weapons
Upgraded missiles such as these have been engineered for greater resilience in flight, meaning they have been hardened against enemy efforts to jam their targeting and guidance systems. One method of hardening or developing countermeasures against jamming is the practice of frequency hopping.
A weapon’s RF signal can be programmed to transition from one frequency to another if the initial frequency is disrupted or jammed by enemy interference. This technology increases the likelihood that the attacking missile will successfully continue through defenses to hit its intended target.
New generations of seeker and sensing technologies also enable weapons to change course in flight and adapt to evolving target information.
Many weapons are increasingly engineered with data links and built-in receptors capable of receiving input and responding to new signals.
The SM-6, for example, can be fired from ships with a dual-mode seeker, meaning it can send its own forward “ping” in flight to adapt to moving targets and “track” a return signal.
The US Air Force is even progressing quickly with a collaborative or networked weapons program known as Golden Horde, an emerging technology wherein bombs can exchange key data between themselves while in flight to respond to changing target dynamics and transmit time-sensitive details between weapons themselves.
The exact arrival of the AIM-260 is likely not known publicly, yet it would make sense if the weapon were moving into advanced phases of testing, development, and procurement.
About the Author: Kris Osborn
Kris Osborn is the Military Technology Editor of 19FortyFive and President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a highly qualified expert in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.
