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The U.S. Air Force seeks medium-caliber gun systems to defend global air bases from drones and cruise missiles

The U.S. Air Force is conducting a market study to identify ground-based, medium-caliber gun weapon systems to protect air bases worldwide from subsonic cruise missiles and unmanned aircraft systems. This Request for Information (RFI) seeks systems that provide a persistent defense against diverse modern threats while maintaining a lightweight, modular, and rapidly deployable footprint. Historically, ground-based air defense was primarily the responsibility of the U.S. Army, but the Air Force now seeks its own organic capabilities. The need for these systems became apparent following attacks by Iran, which highlighted the high cost of using expensive interceptors against large numbers of relatively inexpensive targets. For example, a Shahed-136 drone costs between $35,000 and $50,000, while a Patriot PAC-3 missile costs approximately $5 million. The Air Force requires systems that can be integrated with various sensors and provide a high probability of kill with a single salvo. Potential options include the German Skyranger 35 from Rheinmetall and the American Raid Hunter from Northrop Grumman. Parties have until October 9 to submit proposals.

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