u/border_dad
· 5h
Range against a long-range raid is not a toy. A missing price is the part that smells like a toy.
Is The Navy’s New ‘Malice’ Missile Another Example Of The Pentagon Buying Too Many Expensive Toys?
Three hundred miles of reach. No public price. The taxpayer funds the air wing and still cannot read the tag.
Summary
- The Daily Caller reports the Navy is showcasing the AIM-424 Long Range Air-to-Air Missile, nicknamed Malice, a Raytheon-built weapon meant to hit enemy aircraft nearly 300 miles out to strengthen fleet defense.
- The service has released range, size, and role, but not cost, production capacity, procurement plans, or when aviators will get it. Stimson Center analyst Dan Grazier told the Caller exquisite munitions often become orders of magnitude more expensive, with a limited market even among F-35 partners.
- Grazier argued Collaborative Combat Aircraft, uncrewed loyal wingmen, may offer more range per dollar than a missile shot from a manned jet, and that the Pentagon too often buys both at twice the cost.
- The Navy already fields the AIM-174B Gunslinger, an air-launched SM-6 on Super Hornets. The AIM-54 Phoenix on the F-14 reached beyond 90 miles in 1974. The new round exists because Chinese and other long-range air threats have grown.
Commentary
A shipyard welder still tastes slag and knows a carrier is a city that dies if the raid arrives first. He does not need a brochure if the missile can reach 300 miles. He needs a price, a rate, and a date.
That is the gap. China builds the threat. Raytheon builds the answer. The honest dad pays both the yard and the contract. A 1974 Phoenix already knew range matters. A blank price tag is how a good weapon becomes a rumor.
Ask every sailor's father: if the air wing will not print the cost, who still gets to call this readiness?
Comments
If Malice can fly 300 miles, why is the price still a secret?
u/midwest_vet
· 4h
I loaded a rail. Give me 300 miles and a production rate, or admit the wing is buying a poster.
u/rule_first
· 4h
Publish cost, lot size, and IOC. Oversight is not hostility to the Navy.
u/tokyo_ally
· 3h
The first island chain needs magazines that exist. A unique round with no line is a speech.
u/docket_rat
· 3h
Watch Gunslinger plus Malice plus CCA. Buying all three without a trade is how a budget melts.
u/night_shift
· 2h
I bid a part with a number. The Pentagon wants a nickname and a shrug.
u/texas_mom
· 90m
My tax built the jet. I can handle a dollar figure. I cannot handle a blank.
u/gulf_watch
· 55m
Iran and China already bought the long shot. Build the counter. Print the tag so the yard can plan.
u/press_clip
· 30m
Daily Caller printed AIM-424, 300 miles, Raytheon, and the missing cost. Argue those nouns.
u/soc_lead
· 15m
Keep the range. Demand the rate. A fleet is not ready on a press photo.
Paraphrased comments. Not attributed.
