New imagery of a U.S. Navy F/A-18E Super Hornet loaded with air-launched SM-6 missiles underwing suggests that the branch is on the cusp of deploying one of the longest-ranged air-to-air missiles in history. Designated AIM-174B, these new weapons may just provide America’s carrier-based fighters with the capability to engage enemy aircraft hundreds of miles away, while also offering targeting of enemy warships and intercepts of inbound threats like ballistic or cruise missiles. That could give the Navy’s fighters a giant leap in offensive and defensive capabilities over the wide-open spaces of the Pacific.
The AIM-174B is an air-launched variant of the SM-6 missile, effectively bringing together capabilities reminiscent of Russia’s Kh-47M2 Kinzhal with the legendary air-to-air prowess of the AIM-54 Phoenix. Designed by Raytheon Technologies, the SM-6 missile is one of the most versatile weapon systems in the Navy’s possession. It has seen active service in training exercises and combat missions in the Red Sea. The Pentagon bills the SM-6 as “tri-mission capable”-capable of serving in anti-air, sea-based terminal defense, and anti-surface warfare roles.
Earlier this week, aviation photographer @aeros808 posted images of two AIM-174Bs mounted on an F/A-18E Super Hornet from the VFA-192 “Golden Dragons” at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii. These Super Hornets were spotted carrying inert variants of this new air-launched munition during exercises in the present Rim of The Pacific 2024 maritime combat, more commonly referred to as RIMPAC 2024. In one of the photos taken from these exercises, the designation on the weapon could be read as the new AIM-174B with “NAIM-174B” painted on the side of the forward fuselage.
The AIM-174B is based on the RIM-174 Standard Extended Range Active Missile, ERAM, designed to engage inbound air-breathing threats from beyond the horizon. From a Mk. 41 vertical launch tube, one can engage targets at an unclassified range of at least 230 miles. For the air-launched variant, as deployed from a high-speed, high-altitude fighter, like the F/A-18, the range would be over this value.
The AIM-174B could enable the Super Hornet to serve as a kind of “missile truck” for F-35Cs sneaking hundreds of feet further forward into contested airspace. The F-35s could detect targets using their powerful AN/APG-81 radar arrays, and then relay those coordinates back to the Super Hornets, which would launch the AIM-174Bs from hundreds of miles out. This integration with the Naval Integrated Fire Control-Counter Air concept is important, as it closes with a target until its onboard radar seeker takes over.
The AIM-174B is a quite large missile with great range and thus is bound to be an effective weapon. It would most probably be employed to disrupt kill chains on key platforms such as the Shaanxi KJ-500 airborne early warning and control aircraft and UAVs like the Harbin BZK-005 and Tengden TB-001. Its effectiveness is increased by its receipt of real-time targeting information from assets other than the launch platform, such as AEW&C aircraft, UAVs, and possibly F-35s.
Justin Bronk, a senior research fellow with the Royal United Service Institute, said: “The AIM-174B should enable the USN’s carrier air wings to threaten big-wing ISTAR and reconnaissance assets and bombers from sufficiently long ranges as to increase the survivability of carrier battle groups through increasing missile salvo warning times and disrupting some kill chain options.”.
Deployment of the AIM-174B sends a clear signal, whose anti-access/area denial strategy depends on extended kill chains with long-range fires, that the US Navy is by no means standing still in its innovation for defense capabilities.