Air Force Magazine – July-August 2019

    JULY/AUGUST  AIRFORCEMAG.COM

Northrop, Raytheon Team Up to

Develop Scramjet Hypersonic Weapons

LE BOURGET, France—

Northrop Grumman and Raytheon announced June 18

they are teaming up to develop hypersonic scramjet weap-

ons. Northrop will develop scramjet combustors to power

air-breathing hypersonic weapons developed by Raytheon.

e two companies are working under a $200 million Hy-

personic Air-Breathing Weapons Concept program through

the Air Force and the Defense Advanced Research Projects

Agency, according to a Northrop release.

Scramjet weapons use the missile’s high vehicle speed to

forcibly compress the air it takes in before combustion to

sustain ight. e two companies announced the agreement

at the Paris Air Show. e Air Force has selected Raytheon

and Lockheed Martin to both develop HAWC weapons, along

with Lockheed’s separate Tactical Boost Glide weapon devel-

opment. J

Illustration: Sta

Maj. Gen. Chad P. Franks took command of 9th Air Force
and Maj. Gen. Craig D. Wills took the reins of 19th Air Force
in separate change of command ceremonies June 13.
Franks assumed command from Maj. Gen. Scott J.
Zobrist, who is retiring after more
than 30 years in uniform, during a
ceremony at Shaw AFB, S.C. Franks
previously served as the deputy
commander of Combined Joint Task
Force-Operation Inherent Resolve
and as the vice commander of 14th
Air Force.
Wills took over 19th Air Force from
Maj. Gen. Patrick J. Doherty during a
ceremony at JBSA-Randolph, Texas.
He previously served as the deputy
chief in the Office of Security Cooperation-Iraq at the US
Embassy in Baghdad.
The Air Force hadn’t officially announced Doherty’s next
move as of press time. J

Gen. Chad Franks

Photo: USAF

New Commanders at 9th, 19th Air Forces

Air Force Developing AMRAAM

Replacement to Counter China

DAYTON, Ohio—
e Air Force is developing a new air-to-air missile, dubbed
the AIM-260, that oers longer range than Raytheon’s Ad-
vanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) and
would be used to counter the Chinese PL-15 weapon.
Air Force Weapons Program Executive Ocer, Brig. Gen.
Anthony Genatempo, told reporters in a June 20 interview
the service is working with Lockheed Martin, the US Army,
and the US Navy to eld the Joint Advanced Tactical Missile
in 2022. Work began about two years ago.
“It has a range greater than AMRAAM, dierent capabilities
onboard to go after that specic [next generation air-domi-
nance] threat set, but certainly longer legs,” he said. “As I bring
up JATM (Joint Air Tactical Missile) production, AMRAAM
production is kind of going to start tailing o.”
e weapon is initially planned to y in the F-22’s main
weapons bay and on the Navy’s F/A-18, with the F-35 to
follow. Flight tests will begin in 2021, and initial operational
capability is slated for 2022, Genatempo said.
“It is meant to be the next air-to-air air dominance weapon
for our air-to-air ghters,” he said.
e Air Force will buy its last AMRAAMs in scal 2026 as
JATM ramps up, answering combatant commanders’ needs,
Genatempo said.
He told Air Force Magazine the service hasn’t settled on
how many JATMs it might buy in the outyears or how the
program will ramp up.
“e future of what JATM looks like, especially out in that
outyear increment, is very, very up in the air right now,” Gena-
tempo said. “As far as lot sizes go, it’s on the order of a couple
hundred per lot, and I don’t think we have a denite plan.”
He expects JATM could be in production as long as AM-
RAAM, which was rst deployed in 1991. J

By Rachel S. Cohen

By Brian W. Everstine

By Brian W. Everstine

By Rachel S. Cohen

MQ-9 Air-to-Air Missiles Postponed

for Higher Priorities

DAYTON, Ohio—

MQ-9 Reapers will keep their slew of air-to-surface weap-

ons, but the Air Force is holding o on adding air-to-air

missiles to the drone’s arsenal for now, the service’s program

executive ocer for intelligence, surveillance, reconnais-

sance, and special operations forces said.

e Air Force hasn’t vetted the MQ-9’s air-to-air combat

skills since a 2017 test that proved the armed unmanned

aircraft could shoot down other small drones, said Col. Dale

White in a June 19 interview here. He indicated the concept

has been pushed to the back burner as Air Combat Command

pursues other ideas needed to meet the National Defense

Strategy’s focus on more advanced technologies.

“Right now, I can tell you it’s not something we’re actively

... pursuing,” White said. “It’s one of those things where we

always say, ‘there’s no limit to what you can do with enough

time and money.’ ... It is a capability we’ll always keep at the

forefront of something that we can do.”

In March 2018, the Air Force said it planned to oer General

Atomics a contract to develop an air-to-air missile engage-

ment simulator for the Reaper, although no rm plans were

made to add the new weapon to the airframe.

e service has said it wants to use unmanned aircraft less

often in low-intensity counterinsurgency ghts and bring them

into contested environments, though their vulnerability is in

the spotlight this month following the shootdown of a Navy

RQ-4A variant by an Iranian surface-to-air missile. J