Australia will become the first export customer for the AIM-260A Joint Advanced Tactical Missile (JATM), an air-to-air missile that will be integrated onto the country\u2019s full fleet of fighter platforms.<\/p>\n
Defence Minister Richard Marles made the announcement on Aug. 6 while attending the multinational fighter exercise Pitch Black 2026 in Darwin.<\/p>\n
Marles said the JATM will allow the Royal Australian Air Force \u201cto strike at a longer range, deter any adversary and protect our national interests.\u201d<\/p>\n
Australia and the U.S. are alarmed at growing threats from China, whose air force is fielding long-range missiles such as the PL-15 and the even larger PL-17. <\/p>\n
With aging missile types like the incumbent AIM-120 AMRAAM now outclassed by their Chinese equivalents, the AIM-260 is designed to restore order.<\/p>\n
Canberra will splash out A$736 million \u2014 around $520 million USD \u2014 on an unspecified quantity of AIM-260s through the Foreign Military Sales process.<\/p>\n
On March 17, the U.S. had approved the sale of up to 450 JATMs with an estimated price tag of $3.16 billion USD. Given that the recently announced order costs significantly less than this sum, Australia is presumably purchasing well under 100 missiles in this first tranche.<\/p>\n
The AIM-260 will be integrated first onto the RAAF\u2019s F\/A-18F Super Hornet fleet, followed by the F-35A and then the EA-18G Growler. Another future Australian candidate is likely to be the MQ-28A Ghost Bat unmanned combat aircraft, which test-fired an AMRAAM last December.<\/p>\n
Lockheed Martin\u2019s secretive munition is a GPS-aided air superiority missile with increased range and effectiveness compared to existing U.S. air-to-air weapons. There have still been no official photos released of the missile.<\/p>\n
The JATM\u2019s capabilities \u2014 such as its range, propulsion and seeker \u2014 remain heavily classified. Its range is likely to be at least 120 miles \u2014 quite possibly more \u2014 which is far superior to the incumbent AIM-120 AMRAAM. Its form factor is similar to the AMRAAM\u2019s to ensure it fits inside the weapon bays of existing fighters.<\/p>\n
Australia said in a statement that the AIM-260 \u201cwill provide air force platforms with a credible deterrent against airborne targets, complementing existing air-to-air missile capabilities and other surface-based missile capabilities across the Australian Defence Force.\u201d<\/p>\n
Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy described JATMs as \u201csome of the most sophisticated air-to-air weapons in the world, and Australia will be the first country to operate them outside the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, it will take years \u2014 not before 2033, according to some reports \u2014 until the JATM reaches Australian hands and is bolted onto RAAF Super Hornets.<\/p>\n
Australia\u2019s acquisition also opens the door for other Indo-Pacific air forces to procure the JATM in the future, especially given the widespread adoption of the F-35 by close U.S. allies in the region.<\/p>\n
Gordon Arthur is an Asia correspondent for Defense News. After a 20-year stint working in Hong Kong, he now resides in New Zealand. He has attended military exercises and defense exhibitions in about 20 countries around the Asia-Pacific region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia will become the first export customer for the AIM-260A Joint Advanced Tactical Missile (JATM), an air-to-air missile…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":850393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,33263,33265,33258,421016,421015,52730,44,3406],"class_list":["post-850392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-circulated-defense-news","tag-defense-news","tag-dn-dnr","tag-jatm","tag-joint-advanced-tactical-missile","tag-lockheed-martin","tag-news","tag-richard-marles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=850392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}