by Kris Osborn, Warrior
The Air Force and the Navy are quietly preparing to deploy a highly-secret breakthrough air-to-air and air-to-surface and ground missile, a mysterious new weapon both services publicly acknowledge but say little about.
It’s called the Joint Advanced Tactical Missile AIM-260, a sleek, long air-fired missile which appears configured for optimal speed and range, according to an interesting write up in The War Zone.
AIM-260 Advanced Technology
TWZ says that 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
The question of longer range is quite significant, given the known performance parameters of existing advanced fighter jets. The F-35, for example, has shown it can see and destroy groups of 4th-generation jets from ranges where it is not itself detected, so an ability to fire a faster, more precise and longer range air-to-air missile would greatly 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 had the ability to 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. Both the AIM-9X and AIM-120D have been greatly improved for the F-22 in the realm 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 understood as frequency hopping. A weapon’s RF signal can be programmed to transition from one frequency to another in the event the initial frequency is disrupted or jammed by enemy interference. This of course increases the likelihood that the attacking missile will successfully continue through defenses to hit its intended target.
There are also new generations of seeker and sensing technologies enabling weapons to change course in flight and adapt as needed to changing 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 what’s called 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.
Kris Osborn is the 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
