With the longest-ever U.S. government shutdown now over , the Air Force wants to build a $500,000 counter-air missile, Defense One’s Thomas Novelly reported Wednesday. That’s costlier than some missiles the service already has, but the main idea seems to be modularity : the effort would start with a ground-launched version that would develop components for an eventual air-to-air version, according to a Nov. 7 request for white papers posted on SAM.gov .

For context: “The proposed cost is less than the service’s $1 million AIM-120D Advanced Medium-Range Air-To-Air Missile and comparable to the existing $472,000 AIM-9X Sidewinder, according to figures from the War Zone. But it is significantly more expensive than the service’s APKWS II jet-fired anti-drone rockets

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