Air Force Awards $100M Stand-In Attack Weapon Contract to Northrop Grumman

Logo: Northrop Grumman

Northrop Grumman has secured a sole-sourced contract worth up to $100 million to support the U.S. Air Force’s Stand-in Attack Weapon, or SiAW, subsystem. The award covers active seeker components, test and evaluation support, and science and technology development, the Department of Defense said.

Work will take place in Baltimore, Maryland, until Dec. 31, 2034. The Air Force Lifecycle Management Center served as the contracting activity.

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What Is a Stand-in Attack Weapon?

The SiAW is an air-to-surface missile designed to disrupt an enemy’s anti-access/area denial environment by attacking relocatable targets. Northrop Grumman is developing the weapon system with a Weapon Open Systems Architecture, or WOSA, to enable future upgrades.

The SiAW is the Air Force’s first digital weapons acquisition and development program and it is expected to achieve initial operating capacity in 2026. So far, the platform is compatible with the F-35A Lightning II fifth-generation fighter aircraft.

In 2023, Northrop also received a contract valued at $705 million from the U.S. Air Force to utilize digital engineering to build and deliver SiAW systems as part of the second phase of the program. 

The service branch intends to purchase 400 to 3,000 of the SiAW missiles for a total cost of about $8.4 billion by fiscal 2028, according to budget documents.