The Missile Defense Agency just successfully tested an AIM-9X missile modified with the Raytheon-developed Net-Centric Airborne Defense Element, firing it from an F-16 to intercept a boosting rocket used as a target boost-phase missile. According to an MDA release, the Dec. 3 test over the White Sands Missile Range included a second modified AIM-9X that observed the intercept through its NCADE seeker and “was also on a trajectory to intercept the target.” Raytheon Missile Systems VP Mike Booen said in a company statement, “This test provides clear evidence that the NCADE seeker is a viable solution against a [short- and medium-range] boosting missile threat.” MDA notes that fighters or unmanned aerial vehicles could carry an NCADE-equipped missile where the aircraft could “penetrate to within about 100 miles of the [missile] launch site.” The Air National Guard-Air Force Reserve Command Test Center at Tucson, Ariz., provided the F-16.
Anduril and General Atomics will develop their Collaborative Combat Aircraft for the Air Force, beating out Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman, the service announced on April 24. But any of the non-selected companies can compete to actually manufacture the eventual design, the Air Force said.