MBDA Meteor
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The Meteor missile is a highly agile long-range air-to-air guided missile for future complex beyond-visual-range (BVR) threat scenarios built by MBDA.
Meteor started out as the UK MoD Staff Requirement 1239, for a Beyond Visual Range Air-To-Air Missile (BVRAAM) system, to replace the Raytheon AMRAAM missile for the RAF. It will equip the Eurofighter Typhoon, Dassault Rafale and SAAB Gripen and can be fitted to any other advanced fighter aircraft.
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Technology
Within its detection range, the radar-seeker takes on autonomous target control in all weather conditions and also in severe electronic warfare environments. The use of a throttleable air-breathing ramjet fed by a solid-propellant gives a range of more than 100 km at speeds of up to Mach 4.
The full contractor list includes besides MBDA, Indra, EADS/CASA, Saab Bofors Dynamics AB and MBDA Deutschland.
History
In 1999, the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, came under pressure from US President Bill Clinton to choose an American missile to be the Royal Air Force long range air-air missile for its Eurofighter Typhoon's. Raytheon offered both the Future Medium Range Air-Air Missile (FMRAAM)—an improved ramjet-powered AMRAAM—and the Extended Range Air-Air Missile (EMRAAM), a more modest upgrade.
In May 2000 Britain announced that the Matra BAe Dynamics Meteor missile system would be the UK's next long-range missile. In a contract worth £1.5 billion, 4,600 UK jobs will be created or guaranteed. One major benefit of having a European missile for a European aircraft (the Typhoon) is that exports will not be subject to American controls—as they would have been if the Raytheon AMRAAM was chosen. Every export sale would have had to have been approved by the Congress of the United States, leading to the scenario where the Eurofighter would be marketed as a plane without an effective next-generation missile that didn't depend on US foreign policy.
The Meteor selection was not a total loss for U.S. industry, Boeing is part of the team providing aircraft integration and manufacturing technology.
The Meteor is considered to be a high-risk project compared to the choice of an upgraded existing missile, but this is due to the high technology of the project, compared to the low risk development of the proven AMRAAM missile. The commitment to Meteor by the European air forces gives European industry (in this case MBDA) a clear advantage over its American competitors, as America has not committed itself to a similar long-range ramjet missile. This is partly due to the fact that USAF tactics will involve the deployment of the stealthy F-22 Raptor, which is supposed to be able to close to within range of the current AMRAAM undetected, and whose speed, acceleration, and high-speed climb capabilities extends the AMRAAM's range substantially. The Meteor as planned is too large for internal carriage in the F-22 or the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter although MBDA has planned to adjust the design so that it can fit into the weapons bay of the F-35 which will enter British service. However the US Navy may yet require an equivalent to the Meteor as they will continue to use the more conventional F/A-18E Super Hornet.
According to an article in Jane's International Defence Review [1], the key expected advantage of the Meteor over current-generation missiles is that it retains high manoeuverability at extended ranges, making it very difficult for its target to escape (assuming the missile can "see" its target). The Meteor's "no-escape zone" is therefore believed to extend to about 80 kilometres, about double that of the AMRAAM.
See also
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