On Friday, March 15, 2026, photographer Jonathan Tweedy published on his Instagram account the first photograph from tests of the new AIM-260A JATM (Joint Advanced Tactical Missile) long-range air-to-air missile, developed by U.S. company Lockheed Martin.
Photos: Jonathan Tweedy via Instagram
A Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornet multirole aircraft from the U.S. Navy’s Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 31, “The Dust Devils” (VX-31), carrying a prototype AIM-260A JATM missile with a live high-explosive fragmentation warhead, as indicated by the yellow band on the forward section of the body, was photographed on May 13 near Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. The missile had never previously been publicly displayed.
Interestingly, another photograph also shows a second aircraft carrying a modified FPU-13/A fuel tank with an IRST Block II infrared search-and-track sensor.
The AIM-260A JATM is intended to supplement and then gradually replace the AIM-120 AMRAAM, initially on U.S. Air Force (USAF) Lockheed F-22A Raptor air-superiority fighters and U.S. Navy F/A-18E/F Super Hornet multirole aircraft, with integration later planned for fifth-generation F-35 Lightning II aircraft and upgraded F-15EX Eagle II fighters.
Work on the AIM-260A JATM was publicly disclosed on June 20, 2019, during the Life Cycle Industry Days (LCID) conference. Lockheed Martin had reportedly been working on it for two years by then. It was originally planned that flight tests would begin in 2021, while initial operational capability would be declared in 2022. This means the program is now as much as five years behind schedule.
According to earlier analyses, the AIM-260A JATM is to have dimensions and weight similar to the AIM-120 AMRAAM, due to the requirement to carry it in the internal weapons bays of the F-22A and F-35. It is also expected to feature a dual-pulse rocket motor ‒ the USAF has denied the use of a ramjet ‒ thrust vectoring, and an active seeker with an AESA electronically scanned radar, potentially also supplemented by an infrared sensor.
In 2024, the U.S. Navy revealed the existence of the AIM-174B long-range air-to-air missile, also known as the SM-6 ALC, an air-launched version of the RIM-174 SM-6 ERAM shipborne missile.
It is worth adding that in November 2017, a U.S. Office of the Secretary of Defense budget document noted funding for a new BVRAAM-class air-to-air missile project called LREW, or Long-Range Engagement Weapon. The project was to have been underway since 2015. It is also worth recalling that in 2013 the Next Generation Missile (NGM) program was canceled. Previously known as the AIM-188 Joint Dual Role Air Dominance Missile (JDRADM), as well as the DARPA-led T-3, or Triple Target Terminator, project, it too was intended to replace AMRAAM.
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