US Gives Go Ahead for New Lethal Hardware for Australia

An AGM-88E Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile is fired from a VX-31 FA-18 Hornet over the NAWCWD China Lake land range in August during the missile’s Operational Assessment. Mike McGinnis, Naval Air Systems Command

The Australian Defence Forces (ADF) just became more lethal after the United States government greenlit the sale of long-range guided missiles and their supporting equipment.

The sale, which is estimated to cost the Australian federal government around $750 million (US$506 million), will see Australia acquire up to 63 of the U.S. new medium-range air-to-ground Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missiles-Extended Range (AARGM-ERs), and up to 20 AARGM-ER Captive Air Training Missiles (CATMs).