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Photos confirm AIM-260A JATM air-to-air missile in flight-test configuration on U.S. Navy F/A-18F

AIM-260A—Lockheed’s longer-range successor to the AIM-120 AMRAAM—has surfaced in the first publicly captured imagery. The missile was photographed during a test flight from Eglin Air Force Base, carried by a U.S. Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet, showing an AIM-260A in a flight-test configuration.

Discovered 2026-05-15T05:11:45.796596-07:00 | 2026-05-15T05:11:45.796596-07:00

Briefing

What Hype is tracking

The first public imagery of AIM-260A reduces the remaining uncertainty around the weapon’s form factor and integration state for U.S. Navy/USAF air-to-air employment—critical for procurement and baseline cost/weight/performance planning.
The test-flight confirmation adds credibility to the earlier signal that the Pentagon is seeking to accelerate AIM-260 production, after its proposed $2 billion increase for the classified program source:d64f44ac-0fc8-409c-810b-e7c76d76b5b4.
This development sits in the wider push for next-generation BVR/air-combat lethality, where platforms are increasingly being aligned to carry and field newer beyond-visual-range missiles with faster transition timelines source:64d9a2ef-1e47-4ffe-8d7f-d89d0de3e232

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