Navy’s AARGM-ER Missile Tracking Toward 2023 IOC 

The Navy’s Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile-Extended Range (AARGM-ER) completes its first live fire event July 19 off the coast of Point Mugu Sea Test Range in California. U.S. NAVY

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.— The Navy’s Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile-Extended Range (AARGM-ER) is tracking toward an initial operational capability of the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023, the Navy program manager said. 

The Northrop Grumman-built AGM-84G AARGM-ER is a growth of the baseline AARGM, the AGM-84E. The improved missile, built to suppress or destroy enemy air defenses, includes a new, larger airframe housing a new solid rocket motor, a new warhead, tail control surfaces and a new control actuation system for more maneuverability, increased range and improved survivability.  

The AARGM-ER is being developed to arm the F/A-8E/F Super Hornet strike fighter, the EA-18G electronic attack aircraft and the F-35 Lightning II strike fighter. 

Speaking April 4 to reporters at the Navy League’s Sea-Air Space expo at National Harbor, Maryland, Capt. Alex Dutko, the program manager, also said operational testing is continuing this year and is expected to be completed in fiscal 2023, with IOC slated for the fourth quarter. Full-rate production is planned for fiscal 2025.  

The AARGM-ER entered low-rate initial production during the fourth quarter of 2021, the first of two LRIP lots. The first developmental test flight was conducted in late fiscal 2021 followed by a second test flight in February 2022. A third developmental test flight will be scheduled before operational test begins. 

Doug Larratt, Northrop Grumman’s AARGM-ER program director, also briefing reporters, said the production of the baseline AARGM is winding down, with deliveries continuing through fiscal 2024 to support transition to the ER version. 

He said Northrop Grumman has delivered more than 11,400 AARGMs (including training missiles and spares) so far out of a program of record of 1,803 baseline AARGMs.   

image_pdfimage_print
Richard R. Burgess, Senior Editor