AIM-120 missile demand is surging. The Pentagon just signed a $3.5 billion deal to keep up.
Demand for the AMRAAM has been growing amid global crises like the war in Ukraine and fights in the Middle East.
The massive deal, which was part of a total $7.8 billion awarded to Lockheed Martin and RTX for missile production, was signed late last month. Other systems in the contracts include Lockheed Martin's Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) and the Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM).
The AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile, or AMRAAM, award was especially notable, not only for its size but the number of allies and partners that will receive the missile.
The Foreign Military Sales portion of the massive contract includes Japan, Canada, Germany, the UK, and Ukraine, RTX told Business Insider. The Department of Defense contract details identified sales to 19 allies and partners.
It also comes less than a year after a $1.2 billion contract for the AMRAAM, another record-breaking deal that followed a $1.15 billion deal in 2023. These three deals point to a demand to refill and expand stockpiles.
"As global conflicts intensify and air threats become more sophisticated, AMRAAM continues to give allied forces a decisive edge in combat," said Sam Deneke, the president of Air & Space Defense Systems at Raytheon, said in a statement.
The AIM-120 has seen use in Ukraine, with both Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter jets and Norway's Kongsberg Defense and Raytheon's National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS). The AMRAAM has also seen use in the Middle East by the US planes battling the Houthis and other threats. These conflicts pull from US and allied stockpiles.
The weapon is an all-weather, beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile with active radar for decreased dependence on the aircraft for intercepts. There are multiple variants of the AIM-120.
The newest one is the AIM-120D, which has a reported range exceeding 100 miles. It's highly useful for taking out air threats like uncrewed aerial vehicles and drones, but it's also an expensive tradeoff, with each AIM-120 costing around $1 million.
The US has pursued alternatives to taking out these threats, and military officials have acknowledged that the need for more cost-effective answers.
Part of the demand for the AIM-120 is that it's a highly desired system by militaries around the world. It is an essential weapon as countries consider air dominance and defense demands in modern warfighting.
Despite many other investments in air-to-air systems, "the AIM-120 AMRAAM series remains and likely will remain the backbone of Western and Western-aligned air-to-air weaponry for many years to come," Justin Bronk, an airpower expert at the London-based Royal United Services Institute, told Business Insider.
RTX highlighted that the AMRAAM is used on 14 different platforms, including fighter aircraft and surface-to-air missile systems, in 44 countries and is combat-proven.
Global usage of the missile, Bronk said, has far outpaced production, making the new contract not only important for filling stockpiles but also increasing production capacity.
Decades of steady usage have left stockpiles thin, with lawmakers in Washington expressing concern about existing stocks. Among other efforts to boost the numbers, the US and Japan are now considering co-production of the AIM-120 to help close the gap.
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