https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/4 ... ir-missile
The previously unknown Modular Advanced Missile is the latest addition to a growing collection of in-development air dominance missiles.
A new program appears to have been added to the relative flurry of activity in the field of next-generation air-to-air missiles, or AAMs, for the U.S. military. While very little is known about the Modular Advanced Missile, reference to which first appeared in a recent Air Force budget document, we now know that the weapon is an AAM and that there are plans to test-fire it from a fighter jet. The Modular Advanced Missile joins several other developmental AAM programs, most of which stress long-range capability, although at this stage we have no idea what range category this new weapon will fit into.
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The first reference to the Modular Advanced Missile came last week, when the Air Force Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation Appropriations (RDT&E) budget request for the 2023 Fiscal Year was published.
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Critical information that we don’t yet have is what class the missile is in: it could be a short-range dogfighting weapon (least likely), a medium-range weapon in the class of the AIM-120 AMRAAM, a long- or very-long-range weapon of a kind not currently used by the Air Force, or perhaps some hybrid. There are no details of seeker type, propulsion, or anticipated performance, any of which would likely give a hint in this direction.
However, the use of the term “modular” in the program name is also interesting and may point to some kind of option to swap out boosters, warheads, and seekers, or at least some of those items, adapting the basic missile for different missions and platforms.
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Boeing, too, has a conceptual contender in the long-range AAM field, with its two-stage Long-Range Air-to-Air Missile, or LRAAM, (...) which could also lend itself to a modular architecture. As we discussed at the time, the LRAAM would seem to offer the possibility of using the front section by itself as a weapon for shorter-range engagements. It's possible that two of the single-stage versions could fit in the same space as one of the two-stage versions, offering great flexibility, especially for internal carriage.
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For now, however, we are essentially left with further confirmation that the Air Force is looking seriously at overhauling its current AAM inventory, dominated by the AMRAAM, of which increasingly long-range and more capable versions are being tested, as well as the short-range AIM-9 Sidewinder family. The latter includes the latest AIM-9X, a weapon that also appears to be heading toward being an intermediate-range missile.
Beyond these weapons, we know that the U.S. military and industry are working on at least one other all-new design, namely the Lockheed Martin AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile, or JATM, which could begin to be fielded on Air Force and Navy aircraft before the end of this year, although it will be likely some time before it’s declared fully operational.
In what’s become a common theme in these programs, the JATM is expected to hit targets at a greater distance than the AIM-120, helping at least match the performance of the latest Chinese and Russian very long-range air-to-air missiles. With extensive testing already undertaken for JATM, this would seem a less likely candidate for RDT&E work in FY23, however.
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Then there is the Peregrine, another Raytheon design, a new medium-range missile that combines superior performance as well as small size, which could effectively double the number of missiles that fighters such as the F-35 or F-22 can carry internally. By developing a missile that’s roughly half the size of the AMRAAM, the Peregrine should allow low-observable fighters like these to increase their ‘magazine capacity,’ while retaining their stealthy characteristics.
A similar miniaturized beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile, Lockheed Martin’s Cuda, was promoted in the early 2010s, though more recently it seems to have largely disappeared from the company’s marketing.
It’s understood that Cuda was to have a shorter range than the AMRAAM and would utilize a hit-to-kill design, eliminating the traditional warhead to allow more space for fuel.
While the Cuda program has gone quiet, there’s no indication that it’s not still active and in 2019 the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) disclosed that the Air Force had allocated funding to a flight demonstration program for the missile. According to reports at the time, these tests would focus on “range and terminal-phase maneuverability when compared to the AIM-120D.”
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Last year, the Air Force again referred to the fact it’s working on a new very long-range air-to-air missile, with the F-15EX fighter jet earmarked as the most likely candidate to carry it. The service made reference to an unnamed “outsize … air-to-air” weapon, while the F-15EX was described as “an outsized weapons truck.” Potentially, the Modular Advanced Missile could be this weapon, too.
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