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F/A-18 Super Hornet Fires Anti-Radiation Missile, Engages Target on California Island

Back in September 2021, defense contractor Northrop Grumman announced the new and improved AGM-88G Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile Extended Range weapon had been cleared for limited production. That doesn’t mean though that the AARGM-ER, as it’s known for short, is not still being tested.
F/A-18 Super Hornet firing AARGM-ER 6 photos
Photo: U.S. Navy
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Shortly after we learned of an F-15EX Eagle II firing a missile over the Gulf of Mexico in the airplane’s first live ammunition test, we now hear word of the AARGM-ER being fired in the skies over California, from an F/A-18 Super Hornet.

The test, the second flight trial of the new missile, took place in the last days of January, but was just now made public by Northrop Grumman. The missile was fired over the Point Mugu Sea Range, and the “missile performed an extended range profile,” going after a land-based emitter target located on San Nicholas Island in Southern California.

“This second flight test verified AARGM-ER’s ability to detect, identify, locate and engage a land-based air defense radar system from an extended range,” said about the test Captain A.C. Dutko, Navy Program Manager for Direct and Time Sensitive Strike (PMA-242).

“Through the exceptional efforts of our government/industry team, we are another step closer to delivering capability to suppress the most advanced adversary air-defense systems without putting our warfighters in danger.”

The Extended Range version of the AARGM should double the range of the existing missile, which is about sixty miles (97 km), thanks to a new propulsion system.

The new weapon is equipped with hardware to make it capable of honing in radar electronic transmissions from the surface, comes with a blast/fragmentation warhead, and its design is slightly different than on the existing version, featuring with a new airframe with strakes instead of mid-body wings.

The top speed of the ER is not known, but the existing AARGM can fly towards the target at Mach 1.8 (2,280 kph/1,420 mph).
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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