US Navy reveals long-range AIM-424 Malice missile that fits inside an F-35C

The US Navy published official specifications for the AIM-424 Long Range Air-to-Air Missile (LRAAM) on August 22, 2026, providing the first detailed public account of a Raytheon weapon credited with a range exceeding 250 nautical miles (463 kilometers). 

The fact file names the missile Malice and lists a length of 13.5 feet (4.11 meters), a diameter of 13.5 inches (0.34 meters) and a wingspan of 26.2 inches (0.67 meters). It gives a weight of 1,500 pounds (680.4 kilograms), a solid-propellant rocket motor and a blast fragmentation warhead. 

Malice fits inside the F-35C weapons bay 

The US Navy describes the AIM-424 as a next-generation missile intended to strengthen fleet defense and maintain what it terms decisive air domain overmatch against advanced threats.  

The document states that the weapon sustains the department’s “first look, first shot, first kill” advantage by giving aviators greater reach, survivability and tactical flexibility, and that it is built for fourth-, fifth- and sixth-generation platforms. 

Two photographs released by the Navy on the same date show the missile in test configurations. One shows four rounds loaded on an F/A-18E Super Hornet.  

A US Navy F/A-18E Super Hornet assigned to Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 23 (VX-23) carries four AIM-424 Malice long-range air-to-air missiles. (Credit: U.S. Navy photo)

The second shows a single AIM-424 in the internal weapons bay of an F-35C, with an AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) mounted on the bay door. The image confirms that the much larger missile fits inside the carrier variant’s weapons bay rather than requiring external carriage. 

Where Malice fits alongside JATM and Gunslinger 

The US Navy has disclosed little about how the AIM-424 will find its targets or when it could enter service. Its reference to fourth, fifth, and sixth-generation platforms, combined with the test photographs, suggests Malice is intended for the F/A-18E Super Hornet, F-35C, and the future F/A-XX. 

The AIM-424 appears on the Navy’s munitions programs list alongside the AIM-174B Gunslinger, an air-launched configuration of the Standard Missile-6. 

Malice appears to occupy a different role from the AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile (JATM), the joint US Air Force and Navy weapon being developed as the successor to AIM-120 AMRAAM. The Lockheed Martin missile is expected to substantially outrange the AIM-120 while retaining a similar form factor.  

Malice is not constrained to that envelope, being almost twice as wide and more than four times as heavy as the AIM-120.  

Raytheon, which builds the US Navy’s AIM-9X Sidewinder, had issued no statement of its own on the AIM-424 as of August 24, 2026.The post US Navy reveals long-range AIM-424 Malice missile that fits inside an F-35C appeared first on AeroTime.

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