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Australia announces investment for new AGM-88G acquisition

By Akhil Kadidal |

The Northrop Grumman AGM-88G Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile – Extended Range (AARGM-ER) has nearly double the range of the baseline AGM-88 AARGM variant. (Northrop Grumman)

Four months after the US State Department announced its approval of the sale of a new batch of AGM-88G Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile – Extended Range (AARGM-ER) to Australia, Canberra has said that it is allocating funds to procure the missiles.

Australia is investing AUD650 million (USD405 million) to acquire the new batch of missiles for use with its Boeing EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft fleet, the Australian Department of Defence (DoD) said on 30 January.

The missiles, which are used for suppression/destruction of enemy air defences (SEAD/DEAD), are to be acquired under the US government's Foreign Military Sales (FMS) procurement process. While the DoD did not specify the number of missiles to be acquired, the announced investment tallies with a September 2024 announcement by the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) that Canberra had requested the purchase of up to 100 AARGM-ERs under the FMS programme.

β€œThis investment is in addition to the AUD431 million for the AARGM-ER missile previously announced by the [Australian] government in August 2023,” the DoD said.

The earlier 2023 procurement announcement covered 63 AARGM-ERs and up to 20 AARGM-ER Captive Air Training Missiles (CATMs), according to the DSCA.

In addition to EA-18G Growlers, the missile will also be integrated with the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II fifth-generation combat aircraft fleet in the future, the DoD added.

The AGM-88G, which has an estimated length of 4.06 m, can fit in the internal weapons bay of the F-35A, which has 14 ft-long weapons bays, Janes assesses.

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