A classified meeting with weapons suppliers is scheduled for 25-26 August at the Guided Weapons Evaluation Facility at Eglin Air Force Base. The meeting was announced by the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center.
Because the meeting will be classified, all participants will be required to maintain secrecy and hold the appropriate security clearances. The U.S. Air Force is seeking a main integrator for components of the Air Force Long Range Weapon, known as AFLRW.
The Air Force expects the weapon to be modular and based on an open architecture. The program is planned to include two air-launched missile variants, one for engaging air targets and another for striking land targets.
The air-to-air role is to be treated as the priority and achieved first as part of the initial operational capability. Both variants are expected to be able to strike priority targets identified in Defense Planning Scenarios 2.1 and 7.1, although the supplied input does not specify what those targets are.
No previous U.S. air-to-air weapons program is described as having sought a weapon with such a long range. However, interest in this type of capability for the 2050 timeframe was included in a 2024 U.S. Air Force report.
According to that report, an anti-air weapon with a range of more than 1,850 kilometres and operating with space-based sensors could be used against aircraft that act as force multipliers. These could include aerial refueling tankers and, potentially, airborne early warning aircraft.
Aircraft of this type normally operate in the rear, beyond the reach of current weapons. The introduction of AFLRW would allow the U.S. Air Force to hold such high-value aircraft at risk from much longer distances.
