Photo: Raytheon
AMRAAM stands for Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile and it's a term that ever since 1991 has described one of the most potent airborne weapons in the arsenal of Western military airplanes. And it's a type of weapon that's getting renewed attention thanks to a new variant whose testing just wrapped up.
The AIM-120 as it's also called is designed to be fired from fighter aircraft against other airborne targets, and it can fly no matter the time of the day or the weather in the area where it's used. Its most recent, and potent, incarnation, is called AIM-120D-3.
This version of the weapon is equipped with an improved guidance system and a new kind of software that should make it upgradable still in the near future, depending on needs. It still carries a blast fragmentation warhead equipped with either a proximity or an impact fuse. The range of the weapon in this configuration is of about 100 miles (160 km).
Proof to how important this piece of hardware is for the American military is a test firing that took place back in 2022 with the newest airplane in the country's arsenal, the F-15EX Eagle II. The weapon of choice for the plane's first live fire mission was the AIM-120D.
The American military and the missile's maker, defense contractor Raytheon, first tested the AIM-120D-3 in the final months of 2020. The program has been going ever since, with the missile departing from under the wings of a number of aircraft, including the F/A-18F Super Hornet and F-16 Fighting Falcon, flown by pilots from both the U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force (USAF).
During the years of testing, the missile was subjected to all sorts of procedures, including captive carry and live firing.
It's the F-16 that was responsible for firing the new missile for the last time during a testing run. This was announced this week by Raytheon, which said the new type of AMRAAM is now ready to enter production.
And it'll roll out assembly lines in quite large numbers, if we are to trust Paul Ferraro, the president of the company's Air Power business. According to the executive, now that all developmental and operational testing has been successfully completed, "we are ramping AMRAAM production to a greater rate than ever before in the history of this program."
The production increase is fueled by new contracts awarded for the weapon, with the last two of them alone valued at around $2 billion. For reference, the cost of a single AMRAAM missile is estimated at $1 million, and that would put the production run at around 2,000 missiles.
For reference, as far as we know the AMRAAM was responsible for 20 kills of enemy aircraft during its entire existence.
This version of the weapon is equipped with an improved guidance system and a new kind of software that should make it upgradable still in the near future, depending on needs. It still carries a blast fragmentation warhead equipped with either a proximity or an impact fuse. The range of the weapon in this configuration is of about 100 miles (160 km).
Proof to how important this piece of hardware is for the American military is a test firing that took place back in 2022 with the newest airplane in the country's arsenal, the F-15EX Eagle II. The weapon of choice for the plane's first live fire mission was the AIM-120D.
The American military and the missile's maker, defense contractor Raytheon, first tested the AIM-120D-3 in the final months of 2020. The program has been going ever since, with the missile departing from under the wings of a number of aircraft, including the F/A-18F Super Hornet and F-16 Fighting Falcon, flown by pilots from both the U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force (USAF).
During the years of testing, the missile was subjected to all sorts of procedures, including captive carry and live firing.
It's the F-16 that was responsible for firing the new missile for the last time during a testing run. This was announced this week by Raytheon, which said the new type of AMRAAM is now ready to enter production.
And it'll roll out assembly lines in quite large numbers, if we are to trust Paul Ferraro, the president of the company's Air Power business. According to the executive, now that all developmental and operational testing has been successfully completed, "we are ramping AMRAAM production to a greater rate than ever before in the history of this program."
The production increase is fueled by new contracts awarded for the weapon, with the last two of them alone valued at around $2 billion. For reference, the cost of a single AMRAAM missile is estimated at $1 million, and that would put the production run at around 2,000 missiles.
For reference, as far as we know the AMRAAM was responsible for 20 kills of enemy aircraft during its entire existence.
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