U.S. Air Force Wants A Self-Defense Missile System

Warzone/Drive: Tiny Missile Interceptor To Defend Aircraft Against Enemy Missile Attacks Moves Forward

These miniature weapons could provide a robust hard-kill defensive option for everything from stealth fighters to bombers to tankers.

Raytheon has received a contract from the U.S. Air Force to build a "flight-test ready" mini-missile that an aircraft could use to shoot down incoming air-to-air and surface-to-air missiles. This effort is one of a number of aircraft self-defense weapon concepts that the U.S. military as a whole has been exploring in recent years as potential opponents, especially Russia and China, continue to develop and field new and more advanced missiles of their own

The Pentagon announced the deal in its daily contracting notice on July 21, 2020. The first task order under the contract is worth just over $93 million, but it could eventually net Raytheon up to $375 million, in total. The announcement says that the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), which is managing the project, expects the work to be completed by October 2023.

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Update #1: Raytheon Wins $375M Contract For Miniature Self-Defense Missile For Jets (Forbes)
Update #2: U.S. Air Force selects Raytheon to develop aircraft self-defense missile (Defence Blog)

WNU Editor: This would be ideal for the bigger planes.