4. Department of Defense · Minor · Needs Congress
Develop and buy advanced mid-range weapons for stealth aircraft
Printed page 114 4. Department of Defense
“Develop and buy larger quantities of advanced mid-range weapons (50 nm to 200 nm) that are sized to maximize targets per sortie for stealth aircraft flying in contested environments against target sets that could exceed 100,000 aimpoints.”
What has happened
- Partially done
The FY2026 NDAA (P.L. 119-60) sec. 141(b) authorized multiyear procurement contracts for AMRAAM and JASSM systems beginning in FY2026, the contracting mechanism for buying such weapons in larger quantities at a lower unit price. No provision sets a quantity, and nothing in either Act addresses the Quote's 50-200 nautical mile band or the 100,000-aimpoint sizing argument.
- Partially done
Section 20004 of the reconciliation act (P.L. 119-21) funds the weapon classes the Quote describes: $250,000,000 to procure medium-range air-to-air missiles, $225,000,000 to expand their production capacity and $50,000,000 to mitigate diminishing manufacturing sources for them; $490,000,000 plus $94,000,000 for Navy and Air Force long-range air-to-surface missiles; $325,000,000 for air-launched anti-radiation missile production capacity; and $1,500,000,000 for low-cost cruise missiles under sec. 20005(20). Quantities bought are not stated in the Act.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
The Mandate describes a capability band rather than a named program, so the search was run on the weapon classes that fall in it (medium-range air-to-air, air-to-surface standoff, anti-radiation) across both enacted Acts.
- The Quote’s sizing rationale (“maximize targets per sortie … could exceed 100,000 aimpoints”) appears in no enacted instrument. partial records that larger quantities of the named class were funded, not that the sizing logic was adopted.
- Checked against the FY 2027 budget exhibits, 2026-09-03, and they carry nothing usable. The FY 2027 Program Acquisition Costs by Weapon System book (generated 2026-04-21) has no “mid-range weapons” program by that name and no line matching the Quote’s capability band; its weapons chapter names F-35 internal-bay integration for one munition line and no more. That is a negative about this document, not about the ask.
- Action
- expand
- Object
- advanced mid-range air-launched weapons
- ID
- 211