US defence manufacturer Northrop Grumman has delivered the first example of its new air defence suppression missile to the US Air Force (USAF), launching a test campaign to certificate the weapon system.
Northrop on 18 November said it turned over a test version of the Stand-in Attack Weapon (SiAW), which will be used by the USAF to verify that the launch aircraft can safely carry and release the weapon.
The SiAW is an air-to-ground missile that promises the capability to target and destroy mobile assets that support enemy integrated air defences and anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) networks.
Northrop received a $705 million development contract from the USAF in 2023 for the SiAW, which is being positioned as the successor to the company’s AGM-88G Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile Extended Range (AARGM-ER).
That weapon, which fills a similar role in the suppression of enemy air defences, is certificated for use on the Boeing F/A-18, F-15 and EA-18G fighters, the Lockheed Martin F-16, the Eurofighter Typhoon and the Panavia Tornado.
In January, Lockheed Martin received a contract to integrate the AARGM-ER with its fifth-generation F-35 stealth fighter. An earlier version of the missile was found to be incompatible with the jet’s internal weapons bays.
By contrast, the SiAW is designed primarily for use with the F-35A variant, which is being widely fielded by US allies in Europe, the Indo-Pacific region and the Middle East.
The concept for the new weapon is that low-observable F-35s could theoretically slip undetected past hostile air defences, identify critical infrastructure such as radars, command nodes or missile batteries, and destroy those targets using an SiAW fired at close range.
Once a gap in enemy A2/AD defences has been opened, more vulnerable fourth-generation strike fighters and non-stealth bombers could theoretically flow through that opening to strike ground combat forces or support targets deeper inside enemy territory.
Emphasising A2/AD has become a fixture of China’s military strategy to counter the USA in the Indo-Pacific region. The concept relies on using large numbers of low-cost, long-range precision missiles that can threaten high-value, low-density assets such as aircraft carriers and strategic bombers.
Northrop says it is continuing to develop the SiAW, including with platform integration work and a complete flight test programme to support rapid prototyping and fielding of the missile by 2026.
