Australia Procures AIM-260 JATM for A$736M; First Foreign Operator of Advanced Air-to-Air Missile
This is Australia's third major air-combat modernization announcement in 18 months (F-35A sustainment, now JATM, pending MQ-28 Ghost Bat IOC), and each one requires pilot retraining and tactical doctrine revision. The RAAF is not simply buying a missile — it is committing to a three-platform integration burden that will consume training sorties through 2028.
If China accelerates J-20 production or deploys PL-15X variants to the South China Sea before RAAF F-35A JATM integration completes, Canberra will face a capability window where its newest fighters still carry older missiles. The Ghost Bat integration pathway is the hedge — a crewed-unmanned teaming platform that could carry JATM without pilot workload constraints — but that platform is still in Block 2 development.
Australia just locked in a capability gap against China's long-range air-to-air arsenal at a moment when the RAAF is already stretched across the Indo-Pacific deterrence line.
The AIM-260 extends Super Hornet engagement range substantially beyond the AMRAAM it replaces, which matters because Chinese J-20s and PL-15 missiles are already operating at ranges that force Australian pilots into reactive postures. The integration timeline — F/A-18F first, then F-35A and EA-18G — means operational availability is 18-24 months out, not immediate. Watch whether the Albanese government requests accelerated delivery or additional tranches in the next defense budget cycle; the A$23.4 billion decade-long guided-weapons investment Conroy cited is the ceiling, not the floor.
What is the actual range advantage of AIM-260 over AMRAAM, and does the RAAF's integration timeline align with the Taiwan contingency window that INDOPACOM is now operating against?
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