Joseph Trevithick
Flight testing of the U.S. Air Force’s Stand-In Attack Weapon (SiAW) missile is now set to begin following the delivery of an initial test article. Derived from the AGM-88G missile designed primarily to punch holes in enemy air defenses, SiAW is under development to offer a broader high-speed strike capability against time-sensitive ground targets, including ballistic and cruise missile launchers, air and missile defense nodes, electronic warfare systems, and even anti-satellite weapons.
Northrop Grumman, the prime contractor for the AGM-88G and SiAW, released a brief statement today about the delivery of the new test missile, “which is designed to verify that the launch aircraft can safely carry and separate the weapon,” along with a picture of it, seen at the top of this story. The company received its latest SiAW contract, valued at approximately $705 million, in September 2023. The U.S. Navy has already been leading the very active development of the AGM-88G, also known as the Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile-Extended Range (AARGM-ER), for years now. The first AARGM-ER live-fire flight test occurred in 2021.
Specific details about range, speed, and other capabilities of the SiAW, as well as AGM-88G, remain limited. It is worth noting that Lockheed Martin unveiled a hypersonic missile called Mako, which it said was originally developed for the SiAW competition, earlier this year. We don’t know whether or not this means that SiAW (and by extension the AARGM-ER) might then also be capable of reaching hypersonic or near-hypersonic speeds, including in a terminal stage sprint.
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