Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC
THE US NAVY has picked Raytheon and Hughes to begin development of the next-generation Sidewinder short-range air-to-air missile.
The USN awarded Raytheon $25 million and Hughes $22 million to begin 18-month demonstration/validation work on the AIM-9X programme. The contract includes ground and captive flight-testing of advanced, wide-angle, focal-plane-array seekers.
Teamed with Hughes are British Aerospace and Texas Instruments. Loral Vought Systems, teamed with BGT of Germany, did not receive a contract. After completion of the demonstration/validation phase, the USN plans to select a single contractor to enter AIM-9X engineering and manufacturing development.
Raytheon has flight-tested successfully its Box office technology-demonstrator missile, which is essentially a wingless tail-control version of the AIM-9, with an infrared seeker with 90° off-bore-sight capability.
For the AIM-9X demonstration/validation phase, Raytheon will use new focal-plane-array detectors. Raytheon has produced over 45,000 earlier-generation AIM-9 heat-seeking missiles.
The AIM-9X would be used to protect USN and US Air Force fighters. Initial fielding is set for around the turn of the century. As many as 12,000 AIM-9X weapons with a value of between $1.5 billion and $2.5 billion would be built for the Pentagon.
US Department of Defense is using its foreign-comparative-test programme to evaluate whether technology in the British Aerospace advanced short-range air-to-air missile (ASRAAM) is applicable to the AIM-9X project. The ASRAAM is equipped with a Hughes focal-plane-array seeker. Other possible foreign AIM-9X candidates are the French Magic 2 and Israeli Python 4 missiles.
Source: Flight International