US and Lockheed Martin to accelerate AIM-260 JATM missile production for F-22 and F-35 fighters.

Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Department of War signed a framework agreement on September 17, 2026, to significantly accelerate the production and delivery schedules of the AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile (JATM). The strategic arrangement establishes the foundation for a future multiyear procurement contract pending congressional approval, intended to expand manufacturing capacity across the defense industrial base. This initiative addresses long-standing inventory scaling needs for advanced beyond-visual-range capabilities destined for platforms including the F-22 and F-35.

The AIM-260 JATM is a next-generation beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile designed by Lockheed Martin to provide extended engagement range and kinematics within standard AMRAAM dimensional constraints. The newly enacted production framework aims to resolve earlier integration delays and secure steady manufacturing velocity for U.S. Air Force and Navy tactical aircraft.

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The AIM-260A Joint Advanced Tactical Missile (JATM) is the next U.S. beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile for the F-22, the F-35, and the Collaborative Combat Aircraft, with greater range and terminal energy than the AIM-120 AMRAAM while retaining a size compatible with internal weapons bays. (Picture source: Jonathan Tweedy via X/DefPost)

On September 17, 2026, Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Department of War signed a framework agreement to increase the production of the AIM-260A Joint Advanced Tactical Missile (JATM) and accelerate deliveries, nine years after the development of this beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile (BVRAAM) began in 2017 and more than six years after full-scale aerial target testing started by April 2020. Lockheed Martin will support the investment needed to increase manufacturing capacity, while the framework is intended to precede a multiyear procurement contract if the U.S. Congress approves the arrangement. The AIM-260 JATM moved into initial production during 2024, but had still missed its planned initial operational capability by October 2025, with F-22 and F-35 integration contributing to the delay.

The FY2026 Air Force and Navy requests contained a combined $687 million for AIM-260 procurement and continued development, while Australia has committed nearly $736 million as the first planned foreign operator, with deliveries expected in 2033. The immediate issue is therefore no longer missile development alone, but how quickly the United States can convert a missile developed and tested in relatively small quantities into a weapon produced in hundreds for several fighter jets. The JATM appeared in 2017, primarily as the U.S. response to increasingly long-range Chinese air-to-air weapons including the PL-15, with the F-22 intended as the initial carrier. Full-scale aerial-target testing was underway by April 2020, and US Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall told the Senate Armed Services Committee on May 2, 2023, that production would "hopefully" begin that year.

By May 2024, however, the House Armed Services Committee was examining whether the services needed additional AIM-120 AMRAAMs because the AIM-260 had not reached the anticipated full production level. In October 2025, a senior Air Force official said the JATM remained non-operational and cited F-22 and F-35 integration as a factor behind the missed IOC, although another official said the program was progressing while acknowledging that the original operational date had slipped. The more recent procurement record gives a clearer indication of scale: Air & Space Forces lists 104 JATMs procured in FY2024, 40 in FY2025, and another 116 supported by FY2026 reconciliation funding, or 260 missiles across those three funding increments, although those figures do not establish the number actually delivered to operational units.

Against that background, a multiyear contract matters because moving from batches measured in tens or low hundreds toward a sustained wartime-relevant inventory requires predictable orders for rocket motors, energetics, seekers, guidance electronics, warheads, and control components. The JATM's physical requirement is unusually restrictive, as its greater range must be obtained without moving far beyond the AIM-120 dimensional envelope. The missile must still fit the internal bays of the F-22 and F-35 stealth fighters, imposing fixed limits on missile length, diameter, and control surface geometry. The missile has four principal functional sections comprising guidance, a high-explosive blast-fragmentation warhead, control, and propulsion, while its external configuration eliminates the AIM-120 family's prominent mid-body wings. Its listed maximum speed is Mach 5, compared with Mach 4 for the AMRAAM, while its operational range remains classified.

The available program figures place it above 120 miles, or roughly 193 km, while earlier estimates have ranged from at least 160 km to more than 180 to 200 km; none should be treated as a confirmed maximum combat range. Test requirements provide another indicator: an Eglin AFB test-area comparison gave the JATM range circle roughly twice the radius of the corresponding AMRAAM test circle, although it cannot be converted directly into missile range. A new solid-propellant grain configuration associated with the program packs more propellant into the available volume and has been linked with roughly 1.5 times greater range. The engineering objective is therefore specific: increase impulse, velocity, and terminal energy while preserving an AMRAAM-class volume compatible with internal fighter carriage. That constraint directly affects fighter magazine depth.

The F-22 can internally carry six AIM-120 radar-guided missiles in its main bays, as the AIM-120C's clipped control surfaces increased Raptor capacity from four to six AMRAAMs. Keeping the JATM near that dimensional class allows greater engagement reach without necessarily reducing the number of internally carried BVR weapons, unlike missiles weighing several times more than AMRAAM, such as the 830 kg AIM-174B. The F-35 imposes a similar internal-carriage requirement, while the F/A-18E/F and F-15EX are also planned JATM carriers. A VX-31 F/A-18F was photographed carrying what appeared to be a live AIM-260A on May 13, 2026, and Kendall confirmed in 2023 that future Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCAs) are also intended to carry the JATM.

The integration burden consequently covers at least four fighter types plus CCA and includes several weapon separations, flight clearances, electrical interfaces, mission softwares, fire-control functions, and target-data transfers. The AIM-120D-3 remains the immediate quantitative benchmark. The AMRAAM entered service in September 1991 and exceeded 14,000 missiles produced by 2008, providing an inventory depth the JATM cannot logically reproduce during its initial production years. An AIM-120C weighs 161.5 kg, measures 3.65 m long and 178 mm in diameter, and carries a 20 kg blast-fragmentation warhead; ranges increased from 75 km for the AIM-120A/B to 90 km for the AIM-120C and 130 to 160 km for the AIM-120D, with a Mach 4 maximum speed.

The AIM-120D integrates a two-way datalink, GPS-enhanced inertial navigation, and an expanded no-escape envelope, while the D-3's F3R configuration replaces the guidance section with 15 upgraded circuit cards and supports later software improvements. The AIM-120C-7 and subsequent versions also gained five additional inches of motor propellant. The JATM therefore has to expand alongside, rather than immediately replace, an AMRAAM production and inventory base accumulated over more than three decades. The Navy's AIM-174B and AIM-424 illustrate what is sacrificed when much greater range is obtained through missile size. The AIM-174B Gunslinger weighs 830 kg, measures 5 m by 0.34 m, carries a 64 kg blast-fragmentation warhead, and has range figures extending from roughly 240 km to beyond 400 km, but that reach comes from a weapon more than five times heavier than the AIM-120C.

An F/A-18F has carried four AIM-174Bs together with three AIM-120s and two AIM-9Xs, giving the aircraft four very-long-range shots while retaining five smaller air-to-air weapons. For its part, the AIM-424 Malice weighs 680 kg, measures 4.11 m long and 343 mm in diameter, uses two-stage solid-propellant propulsion, and exceeds 250 nmi (463 km) in range; four were carried by a VX-23 F/A-18E during testing. The emerging U.S. air-to-air inventory is therefore differentiated by magazine density as much as nominal range: the AIM-120 provides mature inventory depth, the AIM-260 combines extended range with fighter-compatible dimensions, and the AIM-174B and AIM-424 allocate substantially more mass per shot to very-long-range engagements. Maximum range alone, however, does not define the JATM's usable engagement envelope.

In an AMRAAM-type BVR sequence, target position, direction, and velocity are loaded before launch; inertial guidance carries the missile toward the predicted intercept, while midcourse datalink updates correct its trajectory until the active-radar seeker can acquire the target independently. Launch altitude, fighter speed, and target aspect then determine available energy: a high-altitude head-on shot starts with substantially more usable energy than a low-altitude tail chase, while each defensive target maneuver forces course corrections that consume missile velocity. The no-escape zone is consequently smaller than maximum kinematic range. Historical BVR performance demonstrates the importance of the complete sensor-to-weapon chain.

61 BVR shots we reported between 1965 and 1982 produced four kills, or 6.6%, compared with a 34% BVR kill rate during the 1991 Gulf War as surveillance, identification, radar and guidance improved. The JATM's additional propulsion therefore matters most when combined with accurate long-range tracks, midcourse updates and sufficient terminal energy. The remaining uncertainty is quantitative rather than conceptual. The FY2026 Air Force and Navy request totals $687 million for JATM procurement and continuing development, but no confirmed unit procurement cost, annual production rate, or final U.S. inventory objective is provided, preventing that funding figure from being converted reliably into missiles delivered.

Australia's nearly $736 million requirement adds future volume, but deliveries beginning in 2033 do not solve near-term U.S. inventory requirements. AIM-120 must therefore remain part of the procurement structure while JATM output grows, particularly after Congress was already considering additional late-model AMRAAM purchases in 2024 because JATM had not reached the anticipated production level. The September 2026 framework will become measurable through a small set of figures: JATMs contracted and delivered annually, missiles produced per month, unit procurement cost, multiyear contract quantity, maximum supplier capacity, F-22 and F-35 certification dates, total inventory objective, and the annual procurement ratio between AIM-120s and AIM-260s. Until those numbers are established, the agreement confirms an industrial expansion but does not establish how quickly the JATM can achieve the inventory depth needed for widespread fighter loading.

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Written by Jérôme Brahy

Jérôme Brahy is a defense analyst and documentalist at Army Recognition. He specializes in naval modernization, aviation, drones, armored vehicles, and artillery, with a focus on strategic developments in the United States, China, Ukraine, Russia, South Korea, Türkiye, and Belgium. His analyses go beyond the facts, providing context, identifying key actors, and explaining why defense news matters on a global scale.