On June 26, Naval Air Systems Command officially awarded a $1.1 billion contract to Raytheon for an indefinite delivery and quantity contract for a minimum of 2,000 AIM-9X Block II Sidewinder missiles. This is more than double the typical production of past years, which hovered around the several hundred unit mark. The decision is not surprising, following the controversially high expenditure of advanced missiles like AIM-9X during Operation Epic Fury.

The Sidewinder is a staple of air-to-air munitions for the US and its allies since its introduction decades ago. However, the latest iteration is optimized for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter family. The missile can be used on a wide number of legacy aircraft as well, like the LM F-16 Fighting Falcon or even the Eurofighter Typhoon. Considering the critical status of America's inventory of advanced missiles after the recent fighting in Iran, ramping up replenishment efforts is a major step toward restoring strategic force readiness.

Under the new order for AIM-9X Sidewinders, 67% of the total funding comes from 36 US allies under foreign military sales. Valued at $744 million, these orders are for America's global partners like the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and allies in the Middle East or the Asia-Pacific theater. The vast majority of the munitions will be AIM-9X-4 Block II standard live combat missiles. The contract for Lot 26 calls for a total of 1,653 examples of this variant. Meanwhile, there will be 336 AIM-9X-5 Block II+ for FMS customers and 156 CATM-9X-4 training munitions.

It is immediately notable that the FMS funding level far outweighs the proportion of ordnance that overseas customers will require. The reasoning is due to the fact that the US Navy and Air Force will only need to pay for the actual hardware, whereas FMS buyers need to purchase a broader ecosystem of peripheral equipment and services. The USN and USAF already have a decades-old supply chain pipeline that does not need to be updated for future deliveries. That is not true of the FMS recipients that will take delivery of AIM-9X-5 Block II+ missiles.

Additionally, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency is obligated to ensure that FMS deliveries are handled properly by the recipients before signing off. That means that specialized storage, testing equipment, and spare parts must all be accounted for in order to provide proof that the weapons will be handled properly. Then, of course, a portion of that FMS funding pays for RTX-provided technical training services and administrative fees charged by the US federal government.

Winchester: Operation Epic Fury's Cost

The recent conflict with Iran saw a significant expenditure of ordnance by the US and Israel that greatly drained the strategic stockpiles of missiles like the AIM-9X, among others. During the height of Operation Epic Fury, US and allied fighter jets faced waves of hundreds of retaliatory cruise missiles and thousands of suicide drones launched by Iran. For example, the pilot of the Boeing F-15 Eagle rescued from behind enemy lines described encountering a 'jellyfish' formation of drones before being forced to eject.

This order for replacements is a timely and critical decision to ensure force readiness levels in the future. At the time, the heat-seeking AIM-9X Sidewinder became the primary weapon for clear-weather, short-range air defense and drone swarm interception. The much more expensive radar-guided AIM-120 AMRAAM long-distance air-to-air missile is far too expensive to have been consumed for such engagements. Yet, the far more cost-effective APKWS II smart rocket pack system was not widely distributed to tactical squadrons in advance of OEF.

Since the outbreak of OEF, the Fairchild Republic A-10 Warthog II showed how combining smart sensors with unguided legacy 2.7-inch rockets could be an extremely cost-effective and tactically efficient means of defending against low-cost drones. So far, only the F-15 and the F-16 are publicly known to be compatible with the same rocket pods. This system is being further developed by the US Air Force to include additional sensors that will further increase its lethality; however, it doesn't change the fact that the AIM-9X stockpile was depleted in the early stages of the air campaign.

Behind The Curve: The Missile Arsenal

Historically, defense supply chains operated on highly predictable, slow-rolling peacetime contracts. When a massive geopolitical shock like Epic Fury occurs, the military discovers that its attrition rates exceed replenishment timelines by orders of magnitude. The readiness crisis didn't just strike the US military. It left regional allies and NATO partners dangerously exposed. Air dominance relies on the perception of a deep arsenal. When adversaries know allied inventories are at critical lows, the risk of a secondary deterrence failure spikes dramatically.

The relentless OEF operational tempo burned through thousands of precision munitions and interceptors in the opening weeks alone. The White House's recent emergency $87.6 billion supplemental request, including $21 billion strictly to boost depleted munition stockpiles, proves that the Pentagon is playing frantic catch-up to fill the empty magazines left by the war. By finalizing this contract to push production to 2,000 missiles per year, the US Navy and RTX are forcefully converting a stagnant production line into a high-rate weapons plant.

The contract's timeline, extending to September 2029, acknowledges that the industrial base cannot fix a readiness crisis overnight. A fundamental danger of modern weapon systems is that you cannot buy them off a shelf when a war starts. High-precision missiles require specialized solid-rocket fuels, advanced optical sensors, and secure microchips that take months or years to build and test. It compresses lead times so that as older inventory numbers bottom out over the next 12 to 18 months, new Block II rounds will immediately begin rolling off the line to stabilize the coalition defensive posture.

The Needs Of The Navy

Locking in this massive volume now is the fastest realistic method for NAVAIR to secure manufacturing priority. As the service branch issuing the contract, the Navy will have the authority to manage the development, contracting, budgeting, and delivery of future orders as the joint executive lead office. The difference in strategic reality for a Carrier Air Wing compared to a land-based Fighter Squadron makes this level of control over the supply chain for munitions very beneficial for the Navy.

Carrier Strike Groups operate out of mobile, finite afloat magazines rather than sprawling land bases; their immediate onboard stocks of short-range interceptors were depleted at an alarming rate during the 38-day campaign. The Navy spearheaded this order because its immediate, floating readiness was directly threatened by the ordnance deficit.

The Navy also has an expanding, vested interest in the AIM-9X because the missile is no longer exclusively an aviation asset. The USN uses the AIM-9X as an air-to-air weapon on the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and EA-18G Growler, as well as the F-35C, and it is expected to be equipped on the Boeing MQ-25 Stingray drone. However, it has also jointly developed the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System with Norway's Kongsberg as a short-range surface-to-air defense system.

Top Gun And The AIM-9X

The Sidewinder also happens to be an original Navy invention. It was originally designed, developed, and tested by Navy engineers at China Lake, California. Following Vietnam, the Navy founded the TOPGUN dogfighting school to revolutionize tactical training, using the evolving Sidewinder as the template for a new era of air combat maneuverability. The AIM-9D/G/H variants were tailor-made for the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom and North American F-8 Crusader. In the 1970s and 80s, the F-14 carried the highly lethal AIM-9L/M.

As the Navy introduced the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, the digital revolution arrived with the AIM-9X. Owing to this historical technical baseline, the Pentagon has traditionally left the management of infrared missiles under the Navy's purview. On top of that historical fact, the Navy’s PMA-259 program office doesn't just buy for American pilots; it manages the massive $3 billion+ global portfolio of international AIM-9X partners.

Enter The Joint Strike Fighter

With the introduction of the F-35C and its internal weapons bay carriage for missiles, the Navy had to integrate a new system of targeting for the AIM-9X Block II. The advent of the lock-on after launch capability allows an F-35 to launch an AIM-9X from an internal bay completely blind. Coupled with the Joint Helmet-Mounted Cueing System, a pilot can lock onto and destroy an enemy aircraft simply by looking at it, even if the enemy is flying 90 degrees to the side or directly behind them.

Proliferated by the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter family, which now includes 20 nations as operators, the Sidewinder tree has become a global standard, relied upon by the Air Force, Marines, and over 30 allied nations. The Navy is also developing an AIM-9X Compact Variant, which will pack all of the same capability into a scaled-down airframe for future sixth-generation stealth fighters.

The current utility of the existing AIM-9X missile, combined with the future value as the US and its allies aggressively pursue next-gen fighter programs, also buys into the current assembly line as an investment in future-proofing the munitions supply for American and Allied fighter squadrons on the battlefield tomorrow.