Raytheon is to build 443 AIM-9X Sidewinder tactical and training missiles under a Lot 4 production contract worth $82 million. Announced earlier this month, the deal covers the production of 186 missiles for the USAir Force, and 64 each for the US Navy and South Korea. It will also produce captive and dummy training missiles for these operators and Finland under the award.
In a surprise development, the US Navy this month revealed that it is considering using the short-range air-to-air missile as a self-defence weapon for its submarines. The service's undersea systems programme office has proposed a technology demonstration using a torpedo tube-launched Sidewinder against aerial targets, says Capt Scott Stewart, the service's AIM-9X programme manager. The goal of the as-yet unfunded proposal is to provide submarines with a missile for use against sonar-equipped patrol helicopters.
Conceptually, the missile, dubbed the "Sea Serpent" by Raytheon, would rise through the water surrounded in a bubble of gas, similar to a submarine-launched Trident ballistic missile.
The latest low-rate initial production order for the AIM-9Xis expected to be the final contract signed before the US Department of Defense considers a full-rate production order in fiscal year 2005, says Stewart. This approval is running one year behind schedule, after the programme's operational evaluation in 2003 was delayed due to a shortage of aerial target aircraft. The final testing report has not been released.
The AIM-9Xentered operational service with the US Air Force's Boeing F-15 fleet last November, starting with a unit based at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska.
Source: Flight International
