Raytheon has delivered the 3,000th AIM-9X Sidewinder short-range air-to-air missile that it is building for the US military and coalition partners, the company said in a release yesterday. The Navy is the lead service for the missile program and already operates the sophisticated dogfighting asset on its F/A-18s. But the Air Force is also buying the AIM-9X to replace earlier versions of the Sidewinder. The new missile is already carried by F-16C/D fighters and F-15C/D models, an Air Combat Command spokeswoman confirmed yesterday. And USAF has said it has plans to integrate AIM-9X on the F-22 and F-15E fighters. In Fiscal 2009, USAF intends to procure 275 AIM-9X missiles.
A top Pentagon tech official called on industry this week to help the military develop “lighter, more efficient” directed energy weapons designed to go on aircraft and conduct special operations missions or down drones—areas where the Air Force’s directed energy efforts have been quiet as of late.