The United States has announced a concept competition for a new air defense missile that would cost less than $500 and have a production rate of more than a thousand units per year. In particular, a contract notice has been published under the Counter-Air Missile Program (CAMP), which is in its very early stages.
As he writes Defense Express, the CAMP air defense missile production program will be based on existing US Air Force projects. Namely, on the developments they use for other projects of cheap Extended Range Attack Munition or ERAM cruise missiles.
The publication recalled that the US project is being implemented specifically for Ukraine, and it includes two cruise missiles from Zone 5 Technologies and CoAspire. The average cost of one missile is around $250.
"And although the cost of an air defense missile at "no less than 500 thousand for one" seems debatable, how much of a "cheap missile" it will be. If it costs, for example, in the range of 400-500 thousand (for example, half a million dollars costs the American army AIM-9X Sidewinder, about a million - AIM-120 AMRAAM), then in the end the cost should be lower, taking into account how many missiles will be produced per year. The target volumes are set within the range of no less than a thousand and up to 3500 CAMP missiles per year," — the article says.
At the same time, the publication noted that for cost comparison, the tactical and technical characteristics of the CAMP air defense missile are important, the requirements for which have not yet been disclosed.
It is also noted that the CAMP missile should be launched from both ground and air platforms. But the main question remains what capabilities the missile will be able to provide given its relatively low cost.
