Longest-range air-to-air missile in the world has been revealed – and it belongs to the U.S. Navy

Airpower, Breaking News

By Alex Hollings

August 24, 2026

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The U.S. Navy has just unveiled what it says is the longest-range air-to-air missile in the world, the AIM-424 Malice.

What’s even more incredible is that this missile, which was developed by Raytheon, can be carried internally by American stealth fighters like the F-35, allowing them to engage enemy aircraft from extreme ranges without compromising their stealth.

This story was first reported by Aviation Week’s Brian Everstine and Steve Trimble.

According to the Navy, the AIM-424 Malice was developed under the name Long Range Air to Air Missile (LRAAM). The weapon certainly lives up to the name, with its reported range said to be in excess of 250 nautical miles, or greater than 463 kilometers, but the Navy hasn’t revealed its full range.

The Malice has three times the reach of earlier AIM-120 AMRAAM iterations, and even exceeds the range of the Navy’s other beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile, the AIM-174B Gunslinger, which is an air-launched variant of the SM-6 interceptor.

Yet, maybe more importantly, it also exceeds the reach of both China and Russia’s most capable air-to-air weapons, the PL-17 and R-37M respectively, both of which have been credibly reported to reach out to nearly 250 miles (nearly 40 miles short of Malice). Further, in their long-range trim, neither the Chinese nor Russian weapon systems can be carried internally by their countries’ 5th generation fighters, giving American F-35s packed with AIM-424s a significant air-to-air advantage.

While we don’t know how long the missile has been in active development, thanks to images released by the Navy dated April 3, 2026, which show an F/A-18E Super Hornet carrying four of the missiles in testing, we know that it was already deep into its flight testing regime by then.

The Navy also released a second image, dated August 1, showing the same weapon mounted in the internal weapons bay of an F-35C alongside an AIM-120 AMRAAM mounted on the weapons bay door.

According to a Navy fact sheet released on the weapon, the AIM-424 has a length of 13.5 feet and a significant diameter of 13.5 inches. That makes it nearly a foot and a half longer and with nearly twice the diameter of the AIM-120 that’s served as America’s primary long-range air-to-air missile since entering service in late 1991.

Up until Malice was revealed, the AIM-120, which in its most modern form is said to reach out to just over 100 miles, was the longest-ranged air-to-air missile American stealth fighters could carry internally.

Feature Image: The AIM-424 Malice missile mounted on an F-35C. (U.S. Navy)