Lockheed Martin Unveils Mako Hypersonic Missile

Lockheed Martin and CoAspire unveiled the new Mako Multi-Mission Hypersonic Missile at Sea Air Space 2024. Mako, the name derived from the fastest shark in the sea, is being pitched to the US Navy by Lockheed Martin for its speed, affordability, and targeting versatility to hold many targets at risk.

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According to Lockheed Martin officials, this is the first time the hypersonic missile has been publicly displayed since the beginning of its development over seven years ago. A graphic played by the company at the CoAspire booth shows what seems to be a U.S. Air Force F-35A launching six of the hypersonic missiles in quick succession from both external and internal mounts.


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[KakumeiDev]

the fact that lockheed made a hypersonic missile that can fit inside a stealth aircraft like the f-35 or f-22 is groundbreaking

[bigfoot]

Just remember, if they are showing it to us, its already 10 years old 😂😂😂

[StereoSpace]

The fact that it fits inside the weapons bay of the F-35 seems like it may have been an important design goal. Two of these can be carried, and the aircraft remains fully stealthy. You don't need huge range when you can fly in quietly, launch, then return to base. The target will never know where they came from.

[Omegaman]

I bet this guy can do a killer Kermit impression.

[philchristmas]

Good to see US defense companies pumping out new weapons.

[EWS]

I'm extremely impressed that he knows it's 'fast'.

[johnnytyler]

This is likely Lockheed's entrant for the SiAW missile program. They lost the competition to Northrop Grumman late last year. If you've ever seen the AARGM-ER missile (the new HARM), this thing looks VERY similar to an AARGM-ER. The only real difference is that the strakes that extend along the entire length (almost) of both sides of the AARGM-ER are very short on this missile. You can see them only on the front of this missile.

The rest of the missile body appears to be identical to an AARGM-ER. It was simply scaled up in size in order to hold more fuel so it could reach hypersonic speeds while still maintaining a useful range. And, of course, the contract called for an upper limit on its size in order for it to fit inside the internal weapons bays on an F-35, which is why the full-length side strakes were removed.

Because Lockheed lost the SiAW competition to Northrop Grumman (who manufactures the AARGM-ER, the missile that these SiAW missiles were very clearly based on), they are now revealing this hypersonic missile publicly in the hopes of getting interest from the US Navy (SiAW is an Air Force program) and/or foreign ally militaries. And because Northrop Grumman will be busy manufacturing their winning SiAW missile to fulfill the Air Force's order(s) for it, this Lockheed Mako is available right now for order from the US Navy or any foreign allies who may want a capability like this (and who can get US approval to buy them). They can order these missiles right now and have them produced right now for rapid fielding, whereas any US Navy/foreign orders for the Northrop Grumman SiAW will have to get in line behind the current Air Force order(s) for that missile. Lockheed's production line is just sitting there waiting for the first order to come in.


And just to add...the technical details for the SiAW missile are obviously still classified. It is a brand-new weapon and a brand-new capability for the US military...they haven't even fielded these things yet. Since both Lockheed and Northrop had to meet the same requirements for the SiAW program, this missile has the exact same (or nearly the same) technical specs as the US Air Force's brand new SiAW missile. That means this guy CAN'T share any technical details of this missile publicly...just basic, vague stuff. It's still very cool to finally see this thing, though.

[Nainara]

Based on the shallowness of his responses, I get the impression that Rick wasn't too interested in answering questions about the weapon to the public media. He was even cagey about the development status, saying it hasn't yet been developed to prototype but at the same time it's "ready to fly", "ready now", and "ready to go to scale production".

[indyvisible]

“Go ahead mako my day”
Clint Eastwood I think 🤔

[TheBongReyes]

The key is that this Mako system fits inside the F-35’s internal weapons bay. Now, imagine a F-15EX Eagle II fully equipped with 12+ hypersonic missiles. I’d still prefer if the USAF had adopted the B-1X program. A B-1 full of air-to-air being guided by F-35s and Wedgetails.

[BuceGar]

And when did you develop dis weapon?

"When it became a buzzword in the media, and everyone kept asking '"Where's ours?"

[davidhicks]

Finally, an affordable hypersonic missile!

[hotfightinghistory]

Someone at Lockheed played Wing Commander a lot back in the day I see :) Love it!

[everypitchcounts]

Coming out of left field with this new one

[FireGoliath]

Rarely is so much said and so little actual information garnered

[hamhouke]

Can you imagine?

Boss: Here. This is our newest and best kaboom thing. Go out and sell!

Salesperson: Great! What can I tell people about it?

Boss: Almost nothing, and we never had this talk.

[Skyfalcon]

Gotta love how China and Russia made a huge hubbub about their hypersonic missiles.

Meanwhile, Lockheed over here has it in the corner of some random trade-show with a single suit talking about it as if it was a nice stereo.

[tomtom]

That was a tough interview. 😂 "It's fast"

[jolness]

I can’t find my information about this except from this outlet.

[secretagent]

Stealth+hypersonic! Quite gamechanging play! This basically pulverized any A2AD!