Navy Unveils AIM-424 Malice Long-Range Air-To-Air Missile

1500 pounds — roughly three times that of an AIM-120 — and a stated range “in excess of 250 nm.”

Navy disclosure at the Tailhook convention and the imagery released

At the Tailhook Association convention in Reno, Nevada “this weekend,” the Navy disclosed a previously unreported, very long-range air-to-air missile: the AIM-424 Long Range Air-to-Air Missile (LRAAM), also known as “Malice.” The Navy released an image taken last April showing a Super Hornet from Navy Air Test And Evaluation Squadron 23 (VX-23) loaded with four of the weapons, and another image showing a test instrumentation round installed in an F-35C weapons bay. Aviation Week reporters Brian Everstine and Steve Trimble were credited with first reporting the news publicly.

Official specifications provided by the Department of the Navy

The Navy published a specifications page for LRAAM that lists the contractor as Raytheon and provides the following figures: length 13.5 feet (4.11 meters), diameter 13.5 inches (0.34 meters), wingspan 26.2 inches (0.67 meters), weight 1500 pounds (680.4 kg), and range “in excess of 250 nm (463 km).” The product page identifies the propulsion as a solid-propellant rocket motor and the warhead as blast-fragmentation. The page frames LRAAM as “a next-generation missile intended to strengthen fleet defense and maintain a decisive air domain overmatch against advanced threats,” and explicitly states it is “built for 4th, 5th, and 6th generation platforms.”

Design hints from reporting and how Malice compares to existing weapons

Reporting in Aviation Week describes the design as a two-stage missile, a configuration the Pentagon has long considered when seeking extreme-range air-to-air capability; two-stage designs are expected to yield extended range and very high speed. The Navy’s published numbers and imagery make clear LRAAM is substantially larger than the long-serving AIM-120 AMRAAM and larger than the AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile, which Aviation Week notes “shares the AIM-120’s general mold-line.” An update accompanying the initial reporting says the weapon “possibly sits in between the AIM-260 and the AIM-179B Gunslinger in terms of range, and closer to the latter.” The update also cautions that the published figures — especially range — “may be intentionally skewed for counter-intelligence purposes.”

Platforms, roles, and doctrinal framing in the Navy product page

The Navy explicitly connects LRAAM to carrier air wings and integrated fleet defense. The product page describes the missile as supporting “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.” It lists intended aircraft to carry the weapon as F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, F-35C Joint Strike Fighters, and the future F/A-XX next-generation naval fighter, and emphasizes LRAAM’s role in preserving a “first look, first shot, first kill advantage” and giving aviators “greater reach, greater survivability, and greater tactical flexibility in the air-to-air fight.”

What this means for the Pentagon, Raytheon, and naval aviators

• Pentagon: The administration of weapon requirements has been pursuing extreme-range air-to-air solutions as part of an effort to counter long-range anti-access capabilities; publicly available commentary in the reporting notes the Pentagon has floated goals of air-to-air weapons capable of reaching the 1,000-mile mark in coming years, placing LRAAM within a broader push toward extended reach.
• Raytheon: The Navy’s product page identifies Raytheon as the contractor; the disclosure of the manufacturer also prompted the removal of a prior comparison in the reporting that likened the design to a Boeing concept.
• Naval aviators and the carrier air wing: The Navy frames LRAAM as a tool to extend tactical options — longer reach, increased survivability and flexibility — for aviators operating from current and future platforms, and shows the missile configured on Super Hornet pylons and within an F-35C weapons bay in released imagery.

The AIM-424 Malice represents a notable, formally acknowledged step in the Navy’s drive toward much longer-range air-to-air engagement. The Navy’s published dimensions, the attribution of Raytheon as contractor, and the photographs of the missile on VX-23 test aircraft and in an F-35C bay provide concrete new data points; at the same time, reporting and the Navy’s own update stress that range figures and other published details may be subject to counter-intelligence considerations. The public record released so far establishes where LRAAM sits in the inventory of named programs and platforms — and leaves open specific performance questions such as secondary modes of employment or the mix of targets it is intended to defeat.

Original reporting: https://www.twz.com/air/aim-424-malice-very-long-range-air-to-air-missile-emerges-from-the-shadows