New long-range missile to boost American air supremacy returns
The first photos from the tests of the new long-range air-to-air missile, which will allow American pilots to regain air supremacy, have hit the web. Introducing what the XAIM-174B will be.
According to the portal The Aviationist, photos show an F/A-18E Super Hornet belonging to VFA-192 "Golden Dragons". It was taxiing at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, carrying two XAIM-174B missiles, which will most likely evolve into the AIM-174B.
The photo below shows the Super Hornet with missiles marked NAIM-174B, which indicate training or test missiles that are fully complete except for the warhead. Additional equipment collecting, such as flight parameters, might replace it.
XAIM-174B missiles - based on SM-6 anti-aircraft and anti-ballistic missiles
After the retirement of the F-14 Tomcat aircraft and AIM-54 Phoenix missiles in 2004, Americans were left without rockets with a range of around 200 kilometres. Upgrades didn't fill the gap to the AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles, significantly inferior to the European MBDA Meteor or its Chinese copy, the PL-15, with a range of around 200 kilometres.
Wanting to fill the capability gap, Americans decided to use what they had on hand instead of designing something entirely from scratch. Adapting anti-aircraft and anti-ballistic missiles to be launched from aircraft was deemed a good idea.
The photos confirm that the XAIM-174B is effectively an SM-6 with the MK72 rocket booster removed, which is unnecessary when launching at high altitudes where the air is thinner than just above the ground. This likely also reduced the missile's weight from 1500 kilograms to possibly below 1000 kilograms.
The result is an air-to-air missile with an estimated range of up to 250 kilometres or more. Its guidance system is an active radar homing head similar to that of the AIM-120 AMRAAM, and a 140-kilogram warhead eliminates the target.
It is also possible that the missile's speed, roughly Mach 3.5 (4300 kilometres per hour), will remain unchanged, as the main missile engine could also achieve it in the thinner atmosphere without the booster, which was necessary for launches from the ground or water level.
