Illustrative ISC title card. ISC Defence Intelligence open-source assessment, 28 June 2026. A sourced image will accompany the published edition.

Raytheon Lands 1.1 Billion Dollar AIM-9X Block II Production Order as US and Allies Rebuild Short-Range Air-to-Air Stocks

By Steve Sawyers MIExpE VR · Defence Analyst & WOME Consultant

Source: U.S. Department of War (Contracts) | Date: 25 June 2026 | Classification: Open Source, AI-Assisted Technical Assessment

AIR-TO-AIR MUNITIONSMISSILE PRODUCTIONFOREIGN MILITARY SALES

Technical Summary

On 25 June 2026 the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) at Patuxent River, Maryland, exercised options worth up to 1,108,009,001 US dollars on Raytheon, an RTX business based in Tucson, Arizona, for AIM-9X production Lot 26. The headline quantity is 1,653 AIM-9X-4 Block II all-up-round (AUR) tactical missiles for United States forces plus 336 AIM-9X-5 Block II Plus AUR missiles for Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customers, a combined 1,989 tactical rounds. The order also covers captive air-training missiles, special and captive test missiles, all-up-round containers, spares and 20 spare warheads. The fixed-price-incentive modification spans the US Navy, Army and Air Force and a wide FMS customer base, with deliveries running to September 2029.

The AIM-9X Sidewinder is the current-generation short-range, infrared-guided air-to-air missile and the latest in the AIM-9 family that first entered service in the 1950s. Block II adds a redesigned target-detection device, a digital ignition safety device and a two-way datalink that enables lock-on-after-launch. The Lot 26 line items expose the round's Weapons, Ordnance, Munitions and Explosives (WOME) building blocks directly: the order separately funds spare warheads, propulsion steering sections, and 34 spare advanced optical target detectors, which form the missile's active optical proximity fuze.

Lot 26 buys 1,989 tactical Sidewinders for 1.1 billion US dollars, but the line items that matter to a WOME reader are quieter: 20 spare warheads, spare propulsion steering sections and 34 advanced optical target detectors, the missile's optical proximity fuze. ISC Defence Intelligence assessment, 28 June 2026

Analysis of Effects

Open sources describe the AIM-9X as carrying the WDU-17/B annular blast-fragmentation warhead of approximately 9.4 kg, about 20.8 lb, initiated by an active optical target-detection device that triggers a height-of-burst function as the missile passes the target. The advanced optical target detector line in Lot 26 is that proximity fuze, and procuring it as a discrete spare confirms it remains a separately managed initiation subsystem. The Block II digital ignition safety device is an electronic safe-and-arm improvement that governs rocket-motor ignition, a classic insensitive-munitions and handling-safety upgrade over the earlier electro-mechanical device.

Propulsion is provided by a solid-propellant rocket motor, and the propulsion steering sections in the order package the motor with the tail-control actuation. The 1,989 tactical-round figure against a single annual lot signals stock reconstitution rather than a one-off buy. The heavy export share, 336 Block II Plus rounds and 744 million US dollars of FMS funding within the obligation, shows allied air forces drawing on the same production line. Per-round warhead, fuze and motor energetics figures are not stated in the award and are recorded as data gaps below.

Personnel and Safety Considerations

As an all-up-round air-to-air missile, the AIM-9X is a complete round of ammunition combining a rocket motor, an energetic warhead and an initiation system, and is stored, transported and handled under United States explosive-safety governance set by the Defense Explosives Safety Regulation (DESR) 6055.09 Change 2, with NATO read-across to Allied Ammunition Storage and Transport Publication AASTP-1 (Edition C, the manual of NATO safety principles for the storage of military ammunition and explosives). The discrete spare warheads and motors in Lot 26 are themselves explosive stores requiring their own Hazard Division and Compatibility Group (HD/CG) handling, segregated from inert training rounds. Nothing in the award indicates a change to the round's safety baseline.

Data Gaps

Open questions include: the warhead explosive fill type and NEQ per round; the HD/CG assigned to the all-up round and to the spare warheads and motors; the precise US-service split of the 1,653 tactical rounds; the full FMS recipient list for the 336 Block II Plus rounds; and whether the advanced optical target detector spares reflect a reliability concern or routine sparing. The contract is a production-options modification, so design-level detail is necessarily absent.

ISC Commentary

A 1.1 billion dollar single-lot Sidewinder order is a clear stock-reconstitution signal. Short-range air-to-air missiles have been expended and drawn down across recent air-defence and counter-air operations, and a 1,989-round lot with heavy export participation is the production system catching up rather than fielding a new capability.

The Foreign Military Sales share is the strategic tell. With 744 million dollars of the obligation FMS-funded and 336 rounds built to the Block II Plus export standard, allied air forces are buying interoperability with the US fleet at the missile level, not just the platform level. For NATO logisticians that is a rare point of genuine round-for-round commonality.

For WOME readers the value is in the spares lines. The discrete buy of warheads, propulsion steering sections and optical target detectors is a reminder that even a mature missile is a managed assembly of separately sustained energetic and initiation subsystems. How those spare quantities move from lot to lot is a better health indicator of the Sidewinder enterprise than the headline missile count.

References

Source-evaluated under NATO STANAG 2022 (Reliability A–F / Accuracy 1–6). Tier 1 = government primary source; Tier 2 = quality news / specialist defence media; Tier 3 = authoritative aggregator / encyclopaedia.

T1U.S. Department of War – Contracts for June 25, 2026, 25 June 2026. (Reliability A / Accuracy 1)
T2NAVAIR (U.S. Navy) – AIM-9X Sidewinder, accessed 28 June 2026. (Reliability B / Accuracy 2)
T2RTX (Raytheon) – AIM-9X Sidewinder Missile, accessed 28 June 2026. (Reliability B / Accuracy 2)
T2Army Recognition – U.S. Navy Orders 1,989 AIM-9X Sidewinder Missiles in 1.1B Raytheon Deal, June 2026. (Reliability B / Accuracy 2)
T3Wikipedia – AIM-9 Sidewinder, accessed 28 June 2026. (Reliability C / Accuracy 3)

Corrections & updates welcome. If you hold open-source data that refines or corrects any parameter in this article, please contact [email protected] citing the specific claim and your source. Verified corrections will be incorporated and credited in the revision history. AI-assisted technical assessment based on open-source material. Not a formal intelligence product.