The United States Navy has unveiled a new air-to-air missile that has the capability to take out long-range targets before any enemy threat can get close enough to strike.
The Air Intercept Missile (AIM)-424 Long Range Air-to-Air Missile (LRAAM) is currently in development and will be produced by contractor Raytheon. It boasts an impressive effective range of more than 250 nautical miles (about 288 miles). In layman’s terms, that means the missiles will be capable of traveling farther than the distance between London and Paris or New York and Boston.
Nicknamed Malice, the 1,500-pound missile carries a blast-fragmentation warhead — a high-explosive core that ignites and then creates a pressurized gas blast that propels its fragmented metal casing outward at supersonic speeds.
While blast fragmentation warheads can use controlled or focused fragmentation to give more direction to the blast, air-to-air missiles typically use Annular Blast Fragmentation (ABF) — meaning that the initial blast expels the metal fragments in a 360-degree pattern. The Sidewinder missile — used to shred the fuselage of enemy aircraft — is an example of an air-to-air missile that uses ABF.
Blast fragmentation warheads, because of the way they detonate, do not have to be quite as precise. An indirect hit — coupled with a 360-degree blast — is often enough to destroy the intended target.
Malice, according to the United States Navy’s release, is designed to “strengthen fleet defense and maintain a decisive air domain overmatch against advanced threats” and “directly supports the Department’s contribution to integrated deterrence by increasing range, lethality, and combat effectiveness for Marine and Naval aviation forces that are defending our fleets, our interests, and our homeland.”
In addition, the newly developed missile “sustains the Department’s first look, first shot, first kill advantage by providing our aviators greater reach, greater survivability, and greater tactical flexibility in the air-to-air fight.”
Malice is larger than traditional air-to-air missiles — 13.5 feet long — because it must contain the larger propulsion system needed to carry it over longer distances.
The news comes on the heels of several other new developments, including laser weapons that could eliminate relatively cheap enemy drones without blowing through stockpiles of far more expensive kinetic weapons.
One of the main goals of implementing the Enduring High Energy Laser (E-HEL) is to avoid a scenario that Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) likened to “throwing Ferraris at frisbees.”
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