The US Air Force has awarded Raytheon Missiles & Defense a $972 million contract for the delivery of upgraded AMRAAM missiles for the US military, as well as 19 allied customers.
This is the first AMRAAM contract to produce an entire lot of AIM-120D3 and AIM-120C8 missiles developed under the Form, Fit, Function Refresh, also known as F3R, which updates both the missile’s hardware and software.
The AIM-120D3 is the latest variant of AMRAAM missile developed under the F3R.
“This contract underscores the importance of AMRAAM in the warfighters’ arsenal,” said Paul Ferraro, president of Air Power for Raytheon Missiles & Defense. “These missiles, developed under the Form, Fit, Function Refresh, have the most advanced hardware and software needed to compete with peer adversaries.”
In addition to providing missiles to both the US Air Force and US Navy, the contract will also include supplies to Australia, Bahrain, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, Norway, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. All of the foreign military sales under the contract amount to 42 percent of its total value.
Raytheon is expected to complete deliveries of the missile under the contract by August 2025.
Under the F3R program, engineers used model-based systems engineering initiatives and other digital technologies to upgrade multiple circuit cards and other hardware in the guidance section of the missile and to re-host legacy software in the AIM-120D3 and AIM-120C8 AMRAAMs.
These variants combine System Improvement Program 3F software updates with F3R hardware.
The US Air Force had the first live-fire of the production version of AIM-120D3 in June 2022, successfully engaging a QF-16 full-scale aerial target. There are two additional live fires planned for 2022.
