America has been building a missile so secret it barely shows its face in public. Now it is letting a friend hold it — and Australia gets to go first.
On 6 August, at Exercise Pitch Black in Darwin, Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles announced that Australia will buy the AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile, the classified long-range weapon the U.S. built to replace the venerable AMRAAM. The deal is worth almost A$736 million (roughly US$518 million) through U.S. Foreign Military Sales — and it makes Australia the first country anywhere outside the United States to field the JATM.
Datos rápidos
- Arma: AIM-260 JATM (Joint Advanced Tactical Missile)
- Fabricante: Lockheed Martin
- Comprador: Australia (RAAF) — first operator outside the US
- Valor: ~A$736 million (about US$518 million), via US Foreign Military Sales
- First platform: F/A-18F Super Hornet, then F-35A and EA-18G Growler
- Anunciado: 6 Aug 2026, Exercise Pitch Black, Darwin
- Entregas: expected 2033
The missile nobody talks about
The AIM-260 is Lockheed Martin’s answer to an uncomfortable problem: for years, potential adversaries have been fielding air-to-air missiles that reach farther than the AMRAAM that has armed Western fighters since the 1990s. The JATM is built to claw that advantage back. Almost every hard number about it — range, seeker, motor — is classified, which tells you plenty on its own.
Australia will bolt it first onto the F/A-18F Super Hornet, then onto the F-35 Lightning II and the EA-18G Growler electronic-attack jet. That is a deliberate order: the twin-seat Super Hornet is the RAAF’s workhorse strike-fighter and the quickest path to getting the weapon operational.
Why here, why now
The setting was no accident. Pitch Black is Australia’s premier international air-combat exercise, drawing air forces from across the Indo-Pacific and Europe. Announcing a beyond-visual-range missile buy in front of that audience is a message as much as a purchase.
Behind the diplomacy is a plain strategic calculation. Australia, like the United States, is racing to hold an edge in long-range air combat against a region where airpower is advancing fast. The government has framed the JATM as one layer in a broader air-and-missile-defence architecture, backed by tens of billions earmarked for guided weapons over the coming decade.
The catch: 2033
There is one sobering detail. Deliveries are not expected until 2033. The JATM is still ramping up even for the U.S. military, and export customers sit behind American squadrons in the queue. So this is a commitment to a capability years away, not a weapon rolling onto the flight line next month. For Canberra, staking a claim early — and being first in line among allies — is the point.
Cockpit footage from Exercise Pitch Black shows the Super Hornet crews who will carry the missile first:
Sources: Australian Department of Defence, The War Zone, FlightGlobal, Breaking Defense, Janes.
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