^Cenciotti, David. First Images Emerge Of U.S. Navy Super Hornet Carrying Two Air-Launched SM-6 Missiles. The Aviationist. 2024-07-03 [2024-07-07]. Although the news broke in 2021 only, the first sighting of a Super Hornet carrying an SM-6 variant occurred in 2018 when an F/A-18F from VX-31 was photographed with the same missile under its wing, indicating that the U.S. Navy has been developing an air-launched version of the SM-6/RIM-174 for at least six years.
^Johnston, Carter. U.S. Navy Confirms SM-6 Air Launched Configuration is Operationally Deployed. Naval News. 2024-07-05 [2024-07-07]. The AIM-260 remains secretive about procurement and delivery given its status as a Special Access Program (SAP). It is likely that the effort to integrate SM-6 is also a SAP…
^Johnston, Carter. U.S. Navy Confirms SM-6 Air Launched Configuration is Operationally Deployed. Naval News. 2024-07-05 [2024-07-07]. …the U.S. Navy joins allies and adversaries in fielding an extra long range beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile (BVRAAM). Examples include Europe's Meteor, Russia's R-37M (AA-13 “Axehead”), China's PL-15 (CH-AA-10 “Abaddon”) and PL-21 (CH-AA-X-12).
^Newdick, Thomas. F/A-18 Super Hornet Appears With Unprecedented Heavy Air-To-Air Missile Load. Yahoo. 2024-09-11 [2024-09-16]. （原始内容存档于2024-09-13）. A series of photos have emerged showing a U.S. Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet with a remarkable and hitherto unseen air-to-air load-out, including four of the very long-range AIM-174B air-to-air missiles. The fighter is also loaded with three medium-range AIM-120 AMRAAMs, and a pair of short-range AIM-9X Sidewinders, along with an infrared search and track system (IRST) and an ATFLIR targeting pod.
^Cenciotti, David. First Images Emerge Of U.S. Navy Super Hornet Carrying Two Air-Launched SM-6 Missiles. The Aviationist. 2024-07-03 [2024-07-07]. The SM-6 uses the airframe of the SM-2ER Block IV (RIM-156A) missile, upgraded with an active radar homing seeker derived from the AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missile. This missile can reach speeds of up to Mach 3.5 and has a maximum range of 200 nautical miles. To that respect, it's not clear what the maximum range of the air-launched version could be: despite the lack of a booster, launching it at high speed and altitude would result in significantly greater range compared to the surface-launched variant.
^Phoenix Successor Redux: The USN's Range Riposte to China's PL-17. [2024-07-31]. （原始内容存档于2024-07-31）. Thirty-two years after the US Navy cancelled its project to replace the Hughes AIM-54 Phoenix long-range air-to-air missile (AAM), the service has introduced into service a likely 300–400+ kilometre-range AAM to fulfil an apparently similar role known as the AIM-174B.
^Rogoway, Tyler. Disclosure of New AIM-174B Missile Brings Navy's Future Air-to-Air Strategy Into Focus. TWZ. 2024-07-08 [2024-07-07]. Also, published figures are often severely degraded for security purposes, so the actual range of the SM-6 remains unknown, especially across its various use cases. Regardless, launched from altitude and speed by a fighter, its range would be extended quite dramatically, giving it the ability to hit some aerial targets over multiple hundreds of miles.
^Phoenix Successor Redux: The USNS Range Riposte to China's PL-17. [2024-07-31]. （原始内容存档于2024-07-31）. A possible target set for the now-in-service AIM-174B is what are sometimes referred to as high value airborne assets (HVAA). HVAAs include airborne early warning, electromagnetic combat and intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft as well as aircraft capable of carrying long-range anti-ship missiles of various descriptions.
^Eaglen, Mackenzie; Spiller, Cole. The Navy's New Air-to-Air Capability Could Set Roadmap for Repurposing Old Systems. Breaking Defense. 2024-07-16 [2024-07-07]. The extensive range and air-launched capability are poised to greatly bolster the US Navy's fleet defense and high value asset attack, weakening the stranglehold of China's anti-carrier strategy… This would hold crucial backline airborne assets line airborne early warning (AEW) and tanker aircraft at risk, and even directly strike China's distant H-6 “carrier killer” bombers, destroying them before they launch their weapons.
