AIM-424 LRAAM Malice, the US Navy's air-to-air missile with a range of over 463 km

Last weekend, the US Navy surprised everyone with the unveiling of a new long-range air-to-air missile.

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The presentation took place on Saturday at the Tailhook Symposium in Reno, Nevada. The new missile is called the AIM-424 LRAAM Malice, and so far the U.S. Navy has only released two photos showing what it looks like. The first photo was taken on April 3rd and shows an F/A-18E Super Hornet fighter jet from the 23rd Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX-23), based at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland. In the image, we can see that the aircraft was carrying eight air-to-air missiles: four AIM-120C AMRAAM medium-range missiles (on external underwing pylons 2 and 10, and fuselage pylons 5 and 7) and four AIM-424 LRAAM Malice missiles (on underwing pylons 3, 4, 8, and 9). You can see enlarged versions of the photos by clicking on each image.

Here we can see an enlargement of this photo. As we can see, the AIM-424 is larger than the AIM-120. The new missile has four tail fins with strakes, as the wing root extensions visible on the missile's surface are known in aeronautical terms. These strakes would give the missile greater stability at supersonic speeds, avoiding the need for additional fins that would prevent it from fitting in the weapons bays of F-35 fighter jets.

The second photo of the AIM-424 released by the US Navy was taken on August 1st and in it, we see the new long-range missile in the port inner bay of an F-35C fighter jet, the naval CATOBAR version (for aircraft carriers with arresting cables and aircraft launch catapults) of that stealth aircraft. This photo is of high resolution (8256 × 5504 pixels) and allows us to see many details of the missile, including the shape of the aforementioned strakes. We also see that part of the forward section of the missile has been covered with three strips of duct tape. Perhaps to hide something the public shouldn't see? Next to the AIM-424, attached to the weapons bay door, we see an AIM-120C AMRAAM missile.

The US Navy has already published the characteristics of the AIM-424 on its website. It measures 4.11 meters long, has a diameter of 0.34 meters, and a wingspan of 0.67 meters. It weighs 680.4 kg and has an impressive range of over 250 nautical miles (463 km). Its warhead is a fragmentation warhead. It was manufactured by Raytheon and has a solid-fuel rocket motor (like the AIM-120). Its speed has not been revealed, but it can be assumed to be a hypersonic missile, meaning it is capable of reaching Mach 5 (6,174 km/h).

Until now, the US Navy had one long-range missile, the AIM-174B Gunslinger, which is an air-to-air version of the SM-6 surface-to-air missile (above, we can see four of them under the wings of an F/A-18F Super Hornet from the famous VX-9 "The Vampires" squadron during a test flight on September 24, 2024). The AIM-174B has a classified official range, although various sources indicate that it could reach between 240 and 400 km. It is heavier than the AIM-424, reaching 830 kg, and measures 5.03 meters long, so it does not fit in the weapons bays of the F-35C.

Before the AIM-174 and AIM-424, the Navy used the long-range AIM-54 Phoenix missile (above). The F-14 Tomcat fighters, retired from service in 2006, could carry up to six of these missiles. The AIM-54C version had a range of 184.1 km (115 miles). Despite their fame, in 30 years of service, the F-14s only fired AIM-54 missiles three times in combat situations, and all three times they missed. The F-14s sold to Iran had better luck, shooting down 62 aircraft with that type of missile during the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988).

Currently, the longest-range operational air-to-air missile is believed to be the Chinese PL-17, with an estimated range of approximately 500 km. The AIM-424 would now occupy second place in that ranking, with the aforementioned AIM-174B in third. Fourth place would be held by the R-37M, a hypersonic missile with a maximum range of between 300 and 400 km. The US Navy's interest in very long-range missiles stems from the main threats to its aircraft carriers: Russian Tupolev Tu-95, Tu-142, and Tu-22M bombers armed with anti-ship missiles (above, we can see a Tu-142 intercepted by a US Air Force F-16 on September 23, 2024, near Alaska).

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Photos: U.S. Navy / U.S. Air Force.