The U.S. Department of Defense has begun work on an entirely new air-to-air missile designed to deliver a minimum range of 1,600 km (1,000 miles). If realized, the weapon would offer roughly ten times the range of the latest AIM-120D AMRAAM variants and greatly exceed the reach of the recently introduced AIM-174B.
The U.S. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC) is preparing a closed briefing for defense contractors to present the requirements for the new missile, which is being developed under the Air Force Long Range Weapon (AFLRW) program. The upcoming meeting was first reported by The War Zone (TWZ).
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The AFLRW program also includes the development of a long-range air-to-surface missile with a comparable range, intended to engage air defense systems and maritime targets. However, the Pentagon has already identified the air-to-air version as the higher priority. That decision is understandable, as a range of 1,600 km is not unusual for air-launched cruise missiles. For example, the AGM-86B is capable of striking targets at distances exceeding 2,400 km.
The Pentagon is also seeking a modular, open-architecture design that would allow components to be replaced or upgraded more easily throughout the missile's service life. The wording of the procurement notice further suggests that the U.S. Air Force wants to field the capability on an accelerated timeline.
From Defense Express' perspective, a missile with these characteristics would likely be intended to engage a relatively narrow class of exceptionally high-value targets. These include airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft, aerial refueling tankers, military transport aircraft, and strategic bombers.
Achieving a range of 1,600 km presents several major engineering challenges. Above all, the missile would almost certainly need to sustain hypersonic speeds, since time-to-target becomes the critical factor at such distances.
For example, a missile averaging Mach 1.5 would require approximately 52 minutes to reach a target 1,600 km away. At an average speed of Mach 3, the flight would still take around 26 minutes. During that time, even a large subsonic AEW&C aircraft could move approximately 850 km or 425 km, respectively, depending on the missile's speed, making a purely pre-programmed interception impossible.
Even if the missile maintained an average speed of Mach 5, the flight would still last nearly 16 minutes. During that time, a target aircraft could move approximately 260 km. As a result, the missile would require continuous in-flight target updates and constant recalculation of the interception point throughout its flight.
Detecting and tracking airborne targets at distances approaching 1,600 km is another major challenge. The United States is expected to address this through the Space-Based Advanced Moving Target Indicator (SB-AMTI) program, a satellite-based tracking architecture whose development contract was awarded only a month ago, in late May 2026.
The first SB-AMTI contract, awarded to SpaceX, is valued at $4.16 billion and covers the creation of a space-based tracking layer designed to detect, track, and support the engagement of airborne threats worldwide. Initial operational capability is expected by 2028, a timeline that may also offer a rough indication of when the Pentagon expects the AFLRW program to mature.
The requirement to sustain hypersonic speeds also strongly suggests the use of a hypersonic air-breathing scramjet engine. Another possible solution would be an air-launched ballistic missile capable of reaching peak speeds of 4-5 km/s, conceptually closer to China's CH-AS-X-13, although that system was developed primarily for strikes against ground targets.
Both concepts suggest that the future AFLRW missile would likely be too large for most fighter aircraft and instead be optimized for strategic bombers. Even if the weapon is intended not only for the B-52, whose service life is expected to extend well into the 2050s, but also for the next-generation B-21 Raider, its dimensions would still have to fit within the bomber's internal weapons bay. That requirement alone places significant constraints on the missile's overall size and configuration.
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