The U.S. Air Force has revealed that it is working on increased production of the future
AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile, or JATM.
One reason behind this effort is to equip the future fleets of advanced drones that
will have high autonomy levels, with a significant number of this air-to-air missile.
These drones are presently known as Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCAs), as per the U.S. Air
Force.
Equipping the advanced drones with these missiles could enable them to work in conjunction with
the existing and future combat jets, thereby considerably boosting lethality and survivability.
In this video, Defense Updates analyzes how CCA armed with AIM-260 JATM would be truly
menacing for adversaries ? Let's get into the details.
US Air Force Chief of Staff General Charles Q. Brown revealed JATM's relevance to the
CCA program while testifying before members of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Brown was responding to a question about what steps his service was taking to make sure
it would have enough missiles to reasonably arm its future CCAs and their crewed companions.
He stated, "Extra [missile] funding will help to facilitize
[sic] so... we can increase the production rate not only for AMRAAM [the AIM-120 Advanced
Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile], but JATM, which is a follow-on to AMRAAM.
He importantly noted: “JATM is also going to be an important aspect
to support the Collaborative Combat Aircraft."
The AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile (JATM) is an American beyond-visual-range
air-to-air missile (BVRAAM) under development by Lockheed Martin.
Designed to address advanced threats, the missile is expected to replace or supplement
the AIM-120 AMRAAM currently in US service from 2024.
The AIM-260 program began in 2017.
As per reports, the missile will have similar dimensions to the AIM-120, in order to ensure
a minimal disruption of launch platform technology and ensure compatibility with currently operational
fighters.
The development of the missile has been wrapped in extensive secrecy under a program called
Special Access Program (SAP).
The weapons are so highly classified that the U.S. Air Force requested approximately
$6.5 million in Fiscal Year 2020 to construct a specialized secure storage facility for
them at Hill Air Force Base in Utah.
While the capability set to be offered by this missile remains classified, it's expected
to pip AIM-120D and the Chinese PL-15 in range and agility.
The US Air Force's CCA program aims to acquire advanced drones with high degrees of autonomy
intended to work closely together with crewed platforms, initially primarily in air-to-air
combat roles.
CCA is part of the larger Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) initiative, which also
includes the development of a new sixth-generation stealthy combat jet and various other advanced
systems like new weapons, sensors, networking and battle management suites, advanced jet
engines, and more.
Secretary of the US Air Force Frank Kendall stated US Air Force leadership has stated
a few weeks earlier "recently given our planners a nominal quantity of collaborative combat
aircraft to assume for planning purposes.
The planning assumption is 1,000 CCAs,"
He explained, "This figure was derived from an assumed two CCAs for [each of] 200 NGAD
platforms, and an additional two for each of 300 F-35s, for a total of 1,000."
Kendall said in his address, "One way to think of CCAs is as remotely controlled
versions of the targeting pods, electronic warfare pods, or weapons now carried under
the wings of our crewed aircraft.
CCA will dramatically improve the performance of our crewed aircraft and significantly reduce
the risk to our pilots."
It's plausible that CCAs or other advanced drones developed independently, could still
be paired with non-stealthy aircraft such as older fighters, as well as support platforms
like tankers and air-lifters, to enhance their capabilities significantly.
Gen. Brown's disclosure is not coming out of the blue.
The U.S. Air Force has emphasized earlier that the primary objective of the advanced
unmanned aircraft is to serve as weapons platforms, supporting fifth-generation stealth fighters,
such as the future NGAD jet, in aerial combat.
However, it is anticipated that CCAs will undertake additional missions in due course
and will also collaborate with fourth-generation combat jets and other aircraft.
In March, Lt. Gen. Moore had clarified during a hearing held by a House Armed Services Committee
subcommittee, "We see three kinds of basic mission sets
for collaborative Combat Aircraft.
The first is the ability to augment the combat force as shooters.
The second is the ability to conduct electronic warfare and the third is the ability to be
sensors in the battle space.
We'll concentrate first on the ability for CCA to augment shooters and to be shooters
themselves."
Secretary of the Air Force Kendall while testifying at the latest hearing alongside Gen. Brown,
"The analysis that we've done shows that the adversary has to honor each of those [CCA]
aircraft as it is a full threat.
And that gives you a great advantage relative to the cost of having those things in the
air.
It both increases the targeting problem, but also gives them [the enemy] tactical dilemmas
that he doesn't have to face right now [which] we can."
Kendall continued, "We can sacrifice one of these aircraft, put
it well out in front, use it to draw fire and force the other side to expose itself
and then be subject to engagement.
We call them attritable.
They're not expendable.
But we can afford to lose on them operationally.
There's nobody in them that we're going to lose.
So it changes our tactical options."
He explained further, "Our analysis shows... by augmenting crewed
aircraft with relatively inexpensive CCAs you get a net combat capability, which is
much more significant than if you tried to do it with all fully crewed aircraft.
One way to think about it is that the pod or the weapon that might have been under the
wing of a crewed aircraft is now flying in separate aircraft and managed by that commander
of that [crewed] aircraft."
1,000 drones as part of the CCA initiative is a massive number.
To put this into perspective, such a fleet would surpass the combined number of the Air
Force's F-22 Raptor stealth fighters, F-15E Strike Eagle combat jets, and A-10 Warthog
ground attack aircraft.
The advanced unmanned aircraft are anticipated to operate significantly ahead of the manned
platforms they operate alongside, thereby considerably increasing the area that the
entire flight group could potentially target.
Adding the extended range of the AIM-260 to this fleet would markedly enhance their strike
envelope.
Add to this another aspect - CCA could get targeting data from other sources like warships
and satellites.
This way the US military could penetrate areas defended by even advance integrate air defense
Systems without suffering major damages.
So, the potential is huge.
It remains to be seen how things pan out.