The US Navy’s new AIM-174B air-to-air missile responds to China’s weapons

The Navy recognized the AIM-174B in July when US Navy F/A-18E Super Hornets aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson and Joint Base Hawaii Pearl Harbor-Hickham were spotted with missiles during exercise Rim of the Pacific. . The Navy has revealed that this missile is now operational. Experts immediately assessed that the focus was China.

“The AIM-174B is primarily intended for the Indo-Pacific region to counter developments within the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) and naval aviation,” wrote Douglas Barrie, a senior fellow for military aerospace at the International Institute of Strategic Studies. in July.

Beijing’s development of long-range air-to-air missiles, as well as its broader missile capabilities, have caused concern in Washington.

In the Pentagon’s latest report on Chinese military developments, officials noted its work on “beyond visual range air-to-air missiles.” These weapons could be used to target fighters, but also high-value agents such as air-to-air refueling aircraft or early warning and control aircraft.

The PL-15 was China’s answer to the US AIM-120D advanced medium-range air-to-air missile (AMRAAM). A 2020 report by the Royal United Services Institute said this missile, a follow-on to the PL-12, “features a miniature AESA seeker and outperforms the US-made AIM-120C/D AMRAAM series”.

China has also been working on longer-range options such as the PL-17, which are also pushing the US to develop new capabilities.

Justin Bronk, a Russian airpower expert, told Business Insider that “China is already deploying the PL-15 missile, which has better kinematics than the AIM-120D3, so there is an incentive” to have a missile that “can match or exceed that performance. .”

This is even more important, he said, given that “the Super Hornet, as the primary fighter type for the US Navy, has significantly less impressive kinematic performance than the J-20 or J-16,” which carries the PL-15 and PL. -17.

The AIM-174B gives the US Navy’s carrier air wings a new capability to engage China’s air force and naval aviation aircraft at a greater range than its predecessor, thus closing the gap.

The ship-launched SM-6 missile, also known as the RIM-174, is believed to have a range of up to 230 miles and was first used last fall against the Houthis. The missile is a three-in-one extended-range weapon for anti-air and anti-surface warfare. It is also capable of killing ballistic missiles during the terminal phase of flight.

In an air-to-air role, it brings some of those capabilities to bear in new ways to help the US match newer Chinese weapons.

Bronk said the PL-17 is probably the biggest comparable to AIM-174B, but Chinese weapon it could have a longer range, in part because of the platforms that will primarily carry it.

The PL-17 is a fairly large missile that appeared on the Chinese J-16 multirole fighter during development. More recently, amid indications that it was nearing operational status, it was spotted on the plane last December. China’s J-16 fighter jet is a fourth-generation high-capacity aircraft.

The AIM-174B, on the other hand, is carried by the Navy’s Super Hornets. Observers noted that the Super Hornets could have trouble carrying the AIM-174B because of its size and weight—the missile is likely five times the weight of the AIM-120D—and that the weapon could affect the plane’s top speed and altitude.

That said, the new missile offers valuable range. In an air combat scenario with China, the AIM-174B might be most useful in disrupting China’s kill chain, or the process by which a target is identified, targeted, and destroyed, and what assets are involved in accomplishing that task. In particular, the missile could target China’s aerial early warning and control aircraft, which help establish those chains of destruction.

It also gives US aircraft the ability to target rear assets such as Chinese bombers and intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance aircraft.

The air-to-air missile game is expected to continue, however. As the Pentagon noted in its report, China is working on its air-to-air missiles, and the US is also working on state-of-the-art systems like the AIM-260.

Estimates of exactly how China’s new AIM-174B and missiles might perform are based on publicly available data and understanding, and there is a gap in knowledge about how the missile would actually perform. But even the existence of the weapon could be enough to be useful to the US Navy.

“Deterrence,” Bronk said, “is about affecting your opponent’s calculations, so in some ways there will inevitably be a degree of ambiguity.”