Douglas Barrie
Thirty-two years after the US Navy cancelled its project to replace the Hughes AIM-54 Phoenix long-range air-to-air missile (AAM), the service has introduced into service a likely 300–400+ kilometre-range AAM to fulfil an apparently similar role known as the AIM-174B. Based on the Raytheon RIM-174/SM-6 Standard surface-to-air missile (SAM), the AIM-174 was a previously classified Special Access Program.
The AIM-174B was seen carried by a Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornet participating in the June RIMPAC 2024 exercise in what may have been a planned move to declassify the project. Along with the AIM-174B, pictures have also appeared of the DATM-174 – the DATM nomenclature standing for Dummy Air Training Missile. Imagery of an F/A-18 carrying an SM-6 first appeared first on social media in 2021, with the test round painted orange. At that point, however, neither the intended application nor the project’s status was known.
High value targets
A possible target set for the now-in-service AIM-174B is what are sometimes referred to as high value airborne assets (HVAA). HVAAs include airborne early warning, electromagnetic combat and intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft as well as aircraft capable of carrying long-range anti-ship missiles of various descriptions. The new missile could possibly also provide a capability against air-launched ballistic missiles. The AIM-174B is intended primarily for the Indo-Pacific to counter to developments within the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) and naval aviation.
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