ORLANDO, Florida—Boeing has dusted off a 10-year-old advanced missile concept to show off “tactically relevant” technologies for the Air Warfare Symposium here this week.
A model of Boeing’s version of the Triple Target Terminator (T3) features prominently above the company’s exhibit booth at the Air Force Association-hosted event.
“Our model is tactically relevant,” Boeing said. “This technology has applications across the air-launched weapons portfolio.”
DARPA awarded Boeing a $21 million contract in 2010 to mature technologies for T3.
The T3 was envisioned as a highly advanced missile, capable of allowing any aircraft to target other aircraft and cruise missiles in the air, along with radars for surface-to-air missiles on the ground.
DARPA charged Boeing and a competing Raytheon team with developing several technologies for T3, including a variable flow ducted ramjet, directional warheads, multimode seekers, digital guidance and control and datalinks.
The reappearance of Boeing’s T3 model six years after the T3 program was completed comes as the U.S. Air Force seeks new advances in air-to-air missiles.
In 2017, the Air Force awarded a contract to Lockheed Martin to deliver the AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile, offering the F-22 and F/A-18E/F as a counter to China’s ultra-long-range PL-15 missile.
Meanwhile, Lockheed and Raytheon appear to be jockeying to compete for a contract to replace the AIM-120, with the former offering the CUDA design and the latter showing the Peregrine concept.
