By Geoff Fein
Raytheon [RTN] is adding a data link to its AIM-9X Block I Sidewinder missile that will enable in-flight target updating of the missile, a Navy official said.
Since entering full-rate production in 2004, the AIM-9X Block I has been a revolution in air-to-air missiles, Capt. Jeff Penfield, program manager for air-to-air missile programs, told Defense Daily in a recent interview.
“Sometime you have an evolution…incremental updates to an existing product. The AIM-9X comes along and it is a revolutionary update,” he said. “When you take a 9X missile and couple it with the Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System (JHMCS), no longer are you in a day where you have to pull your airplane around a corner and point it at somebody to lock on your short-range missiles. Now with 9X and JHMCS I just need to turn my head, lock it on, and [in] that reduction in time there is a critical tactical advantage.”
In the short-range missile world, “the guy who locks first is the guy who shoots first, and is the guy who kills first,” Penfield said.
“Because the whole time you are trying to pull your nose and turn your head the other guy is trying to do the same thing to you,” he added.
Boeing [BA] makes the JHMCS. The Vision System International (VSI) joint venture between Israel’s Elbit [ESLT] and Rockwell Collins [COL] is the principal subcontractor to Boeing on JHCMS.
“The two systems were developed with each other in mind,” Penfield said. “They complement each other very, very well.”
Currently, the 9X is flown on the wing tips of all variants of Boeing‘s F-18s including the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, for the Navy. The Air Force flies with the AIM-9X on the Boeing F-15 and Lockheed Martin‘s [LMT] F-16, Penfield said. “And it is on the road map for the F-22 and F-35.”
Lockheed Martin builds both the F-22 and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
Penfield said from a strike fighter perspective pilots love the AIM-9X because of the improvements in warfighting capability.
Now the Navy and Air Force are off and running on their AIM-9X Block II program that started out as an obsolescence effort, Penfield said.
The program looked to solve some of the obsolescence issues with AIM-9X Block I parts, he added.
“Through redesign of key components, we actually found some open real estate that we were able to take advantage of. And now with AIM-9X, for the first time in the AIM-9 history, we have been able to put a one way data link into the missile,” Penfield said.
The one way data link and an effort called “lock-on-after-launch,” enables pilots to shoot the missile and have a radar track the target and update the target’s position via that data link. An AIM-9X can now be fired and lock on the target later on, Penfield added.
“The radar, via the data link, provides what we call In-flight Target Update (INTU),” he said.
The data link will also give pilots the ability to redirect an AIM-9X to another target, Penfield said. “As long as the lock-on hasn’t happened yet.”
The Navy and Air Force are on path to have a production decision in December 2008 or January 2009, Penfield noted.
“By the end of this year, those missiles will go on contract. The hardware shows up in the fleet in the middle of 2010,” he said. “As a risk reduction, they initially show up in 2010 with the Block I capability in them. Then, about a year later, about 2011, we will have the software developed to turn on all those things. So the hardware [arrives in] 2010, [and] the full-up warfighting capability [arrives] in 2011.”
In the earlier AIM-9M, because it was an analog system, and hardware-centric, Penfield, said, any improvements required changes to the hardware.
“When we made the jump from 9M to 9X, 9X is actually digital. Now we are able to make some changes in warfighting improvement just via changes in software,” he said. “We can get more performance out of it just by improving that software.”
Penfield added the program is spending president’s budget (PB) ’08 dollars for the hardware development. That includes making changes to the central processing unit (CPU), which requires software changes. In FY ’09, the program office will spend funds it expects to have in the PB ’09 budget.
“We’ll spend that money on developing the main part of the software for all of the improvements,” he added.
While Penfield could not discuss future upgrades to the AIM-9X Block II because of the classified nature of those efforts, he noted there is a AIM-9X flight plan.
“We have a list of capabilities that we want to get to with 9X. We are always improving on that,” he said. “We have a developmental strategy to build on the warfighting capability as time goes on.”
Domestically, the Navy and Air Force buy about 400 AIM-9X annually, Penfield said. “We have an inventory objective of 10,000 plus.”
The program, which began in 2004, will run until 2017, he added. “So we are about a quarter of a way through our production run.”
“We are building them as fast as the money will allow us to build them,” Penfield said.
There is also a strong international interest in the AIM-9X, especially for countries flying Hornets and Super Hornets, he noted. “Right now, we have sold to eight international partners. It’s safe to say there is a lot of interest in AIM-9X internationally.”