Eurofighter success in AMRAAM guided missile firing.

[jwcook]

HALLBERGMOOS, Germany, March 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Eurofighter GmbH announced today the success achieved in recent Advanced Medium Range Air-Air Missile (AMRAAM) guided firing trials - a further milestone in proving the maturity of the Weapon System.
Typhoon DA4, piloted by BAE Systems Chief Test Pilot Paul Hopkins with Dave Sully in the rear seat, participated in the weapons trials at the QinetiQ Deep Sea Range at Benbecula in the Outer Hebrides, and was supported by an RAF flight refuelling tanker, a Nimrod MR2 to check for surface vessels within the danger area, and by the Royal Navy, who provided the unmanned Mirach targets.
The profile for this test required the Typhoon aircraft to track two targets by radar, to simulate an attack on one Mirach using a captive AMRAAM missile while simultaneously attacking the second target with an active missile. The active AMRAAM scored a direct hit on the target and destroyed it.
The developing maturity of the aircraft will be further demonstrated through the planned forthcoming guided firings, which include a launch against a jamming supersonic target, a shot using tracking data from a second Typhoon through the MIDS (Multifunctional Information Distribution System) data-link, and a twin firing against two targets.
Brian Phillipson, Programme Director Eurofighter GmbH, commented: "With more than 30 aircraft in service with our four Nations, and further deliveries now being made weekly, it is important that we steadily release more and more capability to our partner air forces as they build up their fleets and their experience. This complex firing is another successful achievement in our continuing development programme, another example of the progressive capability demonstration and clearance our customers are expecting from us. It is also another demonstration of the tremendous capability of the Eurofighter compared to previous generations of combat aircraft."
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[MikeRocker]

What employment modes for the AMRAAM will the Eurofighter have? Is it set up analogous to the TWS mode in the F-15, in the sense that it can guide a number of missiles simultaneously? How many BTW, four also? One part of the news report said that one shot was done using datalink from another aircraft. Does that mean that in this constallation the shooter is completely transmission silent, or will the mid-course updates be transmitted to the missiles via the shooter's radar dish?

Anyone know if the Meteor will have new employment modes?

[Scorpion]

Hi Mike,
the Meteor will probably have the same or similar modes as the AMRAAM, but it's hard to say.
In TWS mode the Typhoon can engage 6 targets at once, guiding the missiles indepently to all to the targets. You can fire the missile and update them after that or let them fly to the target autonomous.
Yes with the datalink it's possible to engage a target without using the onboard sensors.
Theoretically it should be possible to fire the AMRAAM at target with using the AMRAAM seeker only and a "Home on Jam" mode is also available for the weapon. How these things are realized in the Typhoon is difficult to say, as such informations are mostly classified.

[toan]

According to the report of RAF magazine, the UK pilot declared that two EF-2000 can engage 16 targets with BVRAAM at the same time, which should mean that one EF-2000 can engage 8 targets with AIM-120 or Meteor at the same time.

The test pilot also declared that with the help of future BVRAAM, the EF-2000 may attack the target with the maximal range of 200 km away in the future............

[whiteRabbit]

That would be two more than the F/A-22 if true.

[Scorpion]

According to the report of RAF magazine, the UK pilot declared that two EF-2000 can engage 16 targets with BVRAAM at the same time, which should mean that one EF-2000 can engage 8 targets with AIM-120 or Meteor at the same time.

The test pilot also declared that with the help of future BVRAAM, the EF-2000 may attack the target with the maximal range of 200 km away in the future............

There're different informations, the most sources I know states 6 targets, but I also found sources which say 8.
So we can say the Typhoon can definitely attack a minimum of 6, but perhaps up to 8.

[MikeRocker]

I get the impression that these upper limits are largely theoretical anyway. No formation of enemy aircraft under attack will obligingly stay close enough together for one Eurofighter to TWS all of them and support six or eight missiles up to activation. If the launching aircraft turns away then the missile is on its own anyway and the maximum number of missiles is simply governed by the number of hardpoints.

When was the last time a single aircraft launched simultaneously on more than two targets? Did it ever happen outside of testing?

Now if the missiles could be guided via a datalink not dependent on the launching aircraft's radar antenna (ie a directional signal), allowing mid-course-guided launches while the launcher turns away (f-Pole), that would rock!

[Scorpion]

Hi Mike,
it's not necessary that the targets are close to each other for a multiple engagement. As long as they are in the are that the radar covers they can be engaged. In reality it's difficult to find such a scenario as in the most conflicts the "enemy" had only a few aircraft in the air.

Now if the missiles could be guided via a datalink not dependent on the launching aircraft's radar antenna (ie a directional signal), allowing mid-course-guided launches while the launcher turns away (f-Pole), that would rock!

That's exactly that what is meant. This capability is already available for the JAS 39 Gripen and now with the introduction of the Block 2 single seats also available for the Eurofighter.

[toan]

The French men have also declared that their RBE-2 PESA radar can track 40 air targets and engage eight of them with MICA at the same time. I don't see the reason why the AN/APG-77 AESA radar, which is said to be able to track 100 air targets at same time (Aviation Week and Space Technoledge 2000/03/17), can't engage the same, or even the more targets with AIM-120 if necessary.

The main reason for the limitation of F/A-22's engagement today should be internally carrying capability of AIM-120 ~ up to six missiles. If USAF decides to let Raptor carry more missiles with external pylons, the Raptor should be able to engage more targets with AIM-120 at smae time if necessary.

http://new.isoshop.com/dae/dae/gauche/s ... fox3_2.pdf

Page 2:

1. Thanks to its unique waveform design and electronic scanning management, the RBE2 radar performs long-range detection and tracking of up to 40 air targets in look-down or look-up aspects, in all weathers, and in severe jamming environments.

2. Interception data are calculated for eight priority targets which can be
engaged with Mica BVR / air combat active radar seeker and IR missiles fired in quick succession.

3. With its electronic scanning antenna, the radar is fully capable of tracking the other 32 targets, wherever they are located, while updating
the Micas with the dedicated, mid-course, secure, radar-tomissile
link which allows very long-range multiple firings with an exceptionally high probability kill rate.

[MikeRocker]

Let me make clear exactly what I mean, so that we are talking about the same thing.

Current AMRAAM employment (the way I understand it to work on the F-15) goes like this:

Fighter detects enemy aircraft via the radar's search mode (aided by AWACS etc. but lets keep it simple). The radar is put into TWS (Track While Scan) mode and primary and secondary contacts are designated. The radar now begins to compile track files on these contacts by sequentially tuning the radar briefly on each contact to determine position and direction of movement. When the pilot launches missiles, the best known position and velocity at launch-time is passed to the missile to enable it to fly to the correct piece of sky, where the enemy WILL BE when the missile gets there. Terminal homing (the last ~10 seconds) is by the missile's on-board radar.

Now the pilot has a choice:

(1) if he now terminates the TWS (by switching the radar off, turning so that the contacts are outside the radar's footprint, etc.) the missile must rely on inertial guidance to reach the intercept point. If the target turns or changes its speed, it might be outside the missile's seeker FOV at the time it goes active.

(2) he can further support the missile in its intercept by maintaining TWS tracking on the targets until activation. The radar system will automatically send updates of the target's position and speed to the missile, allowing it to continually correct its flightpath depending on the target's maneouvers. This is called mid-course guidance, and is accomplished through a special fighter-missile datalink (one-way I think) that is transmitted through the fighter's RADAR ANTENNA! This means the pilot cannot completely turn away, in order to maintain tracking.

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My points are:

-the TWS footprint (area of sky, in which multiple targets can simulaneously! be tracked) is likely smaller than the complete gimbal limits of the antenna. I assume this to also be the case with the Eurofighter's CAPTOR radar. Enemy formations would try to separate enough to stretch this TWS footprint and deny the shooter a firing solution on all of them. This means that six or eight simultaneous launches on separate targets is an unlikely scenario.

-if there were a system by which the missiles could be fed sufficiently accurate mid-course guidance through other means than the launcher's radar antenna, it would allow the launcher to turn completely away from the oncoming bandit. This would be a decisive advantage in head-to-head missile engagements since the enemy's missiles would be denied closure rate and would have to travel a greater distance to intercept (if they don't run out of energy completely) This would constitute an extreme case of the F-Pole maneouver.

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@ scorpion

The way I understand the system on the Gripen, the launcher can fire on targets relayed to him via datalink, without using his radar. This is more or less the capability discussed for the Eurofighter, is it not?

Are you sure that AMRAAMs launched under such conditions would receive mid-course guidance, and are you sure that such guidance signals are not transmitted via the launcher's radar antenna? Both would have to be the case for the launcher to be free to completely turn away from the target and still support his missiles.