The United States Air Force and Navy are seeking nearly $1 billion in the Fiscal Year 2026 budget to launch production of the Lockheed Martin AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile (JATM).
The funding request comes amid growing urgency following Pakistan’s reported combat use of the Chinese-made PL-15 beyond-visual-range missile in May 2025, which allegedly downed Indian fighter jets at unprecedented ranges exceeding 160 kilometers.
The incident underscored the vulnerability of American and allied aircraft to adversaries armed with ultra-long-range air-to-air missiles, accelerating Washington’s drive to restore technological superiority in the skies.
The AIM-260 JATM, under development since 2017, is designed to replace the aging RTX AIM-120 AMRAAM, which has been the backbone of U.S. and NATO air combat since the Gulf War but is now increasingly outmatched by Chinese and Russian systems.
Unlike the AIM-120, the AIM-260 is being engineered to exceed 300 kilometers in range, placing it in direct competition with China’s PL-15 and its even more formidable successor, the PL-17, which reportedly boasts a reach of nearly 300 kilometers.
The PL-17, already operational within the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF), is regarded as a strategic “carrier killer” in the air domain, designed to engage high-value American assets such as AWACS surveillance planes, tankers, and even stealth bombers like the B-21 Raider.
Such capabilities have forced the Pentagon to acknowledge that the U.S. could face parity—or even inferiority—in long-range aerial warfare if it fails to rapidly field the AIM-260 and other next-generation weapons.
The U.S. Air Force has requested $368 million for the missile’s initial production run, with an additional $300 million submitted in its “Unfunded Priorities List” to Congress, while the U.S. Navy has asked for $301 million, bringing the combined total to just under $1 billion.
This ambitious program seeks to equip America’s most advanced fighters—including the F-22 Raptor, F-35 Lightning II, and future sixth-generation platforms—with a missile capable of outranging Chinese and Russian counterparts.
The missile is designed for internal carriage in stealth fighters, ensuring radar invisibility, while also retaining compatibility with legacy platforms such as the F-15, F-16, and the Navy’s F/A-18E/F Super Hornets.
Integration with future unmanned Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) is also expected, enabling swarms of AI-driven drones to carry AIM-260s deep into contested airspace without risking human pilots.
While precise specifications remain classified, leaked performance assessments suggest the AIM-260’s range will surpass the AIM-120’s 160 kilometers and potentially rival China’s PL-15 and PL-17 capabilities.
Its development has been supported by over $350 million in investments into advanced rocket motors, hardened thermal systems, and new-generation guidance algorithms capable of countering electronic warfare jamming.
In February 2025, the missile successfully completed live-fire tests at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, with the VX-31 Dust Devils squadron confirming direct kills against maneuvering drone targets.
Strategic Impact in the Indo-Pacific
The timing of the AIM-260’s production is directly linked to growing U.S.-China confrontation across the Indo-Pacific, particularly over Taiwan and disputed territories in the South China Sea.
China’s military has aggressively fielded a range of long-range and hypersonic missiles, including the DF-21D “carrier killer” and the DF-27 hypersonic glide vehicle, which can strike targets more than 3,000 kilometers away.
To counterbalance these advances, the U.S. Navy has already operationalized the AIM-174B, a long-range air-to-air variant of the Raytheon SM-6, with a range exceeding 500 kilometers.
Deployed aboard F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and integrated into Australian fleets, the AIM-174B complements the AIM-260 by giving U.S. and allied fighters the ability to strike Chinese command-and-control aircraft before they can orchestrate large-scale operations.
Meanwhile, defensive layers are being reinforced with the integration of PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) interceptors onto U.S. warships, proven effective in Ukraine against Russia’s Kinzhal hypersonics.
Economic and Industrial Stakes
The AIM-260 also represents a lifeline for Lockheed Martin’s Missiles and Fire Control division, which has faced significant financial turbulence including $1.6 billion in charges in 2024.
Analysts estimate the program could exceed $30 billion in lifetime value, depending on production volumes, cementing it as one of Lockheed’s most lucrative long-term contracts.
Its success, however, hinges on cost discipline and avoiding delays, a frequent issue in past U.S. missile and fighter programs.
The Pentagon’s wider missile procurement strategy includes parallel investments in the AIM-120D AMRAAM, AGM-158B JASSM, AGM-158C LRASM, and the SM-6, reflecting a diversified approach to air, land, and maritime strike dominance.
The U.S. Air Force is also doubling down on hypersonic initiatives, including the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM) and a revived Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) program, though these focus primarily on land-attack missions.
Despite promising progress, Washington continues to trail behind Beijing in the hypersonic weapons race, where China’s DF-27 demonstrated the capability to strike targets 2,100 kilometers away in just 30 minutes, leaving U.S. air and missile defenses struggling to adapt.
This performance highlighted not only China’s advancements in glide vehicle aerodynamics and propulsion but also its integration of precision guidance systems capable of maneuvering unpredictably during terminal flight, making interception exponentially more difficult.
By contrast, the U.S. has yet to field an operational air-launched hypersonic weapon, and its ARRW program has suffered multiple test failures, forcing the Pentagon to rely on conventional long-range systems until the AIM-260 reaches maturity.
The AIM-260 itself has faced delays, slipping from its initial 2022 deployment goal, a setback that reflects the complexity of developing a missile compact enough to fit within stealth fighter bays while offering range parity with China’s PL-15 and PL-17.
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