DARPA’s ‘Flying Missile Range’

The United States Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has begun work on a small drone that extends the range of an AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range-Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM), which could match and even exceed the ever-increasing range of Russian- and Chinese-made missiles. While the latest AIM-120 has a range of around 100 miles, China has been testing a very long-range air-combat missile with a reach of 200 miles. DARPA released its request for proposals for the Flying Missile Rail in early September 2017, the agency proposing to spend $375,000 over the next year or so developing and testing a prototype. “A new advanced generation aircraft typically requires 10 to 25 years to design, develop and build with new technology concepts subject to requirements and other processes which can render them programmatically unrealisable before the technology becomes obsolete. An innovative approach is needed to ‘build on demand’ and to incrementally enhance existing capability,” according to DARPA.