All in all, the SLM appears to largely outperform the ASRAAM in range, and is likely equal to or better than it in maneuverability. Its also an almost 4x improvement in range compared to the regular IRIS-T when ground launched, and would outperform the MICA as well.
Its also obviously not that much bigger compared to the regular IRIS-T.
That just implies the seeker isn’t being used to lock the target until terminal range, at which case having a ballistic cap is beneficial for range. Seeing as the actual seeker portion of the missile has the same diameter, i dont see any reason to believe it uses anything but the regular IRIS-T seekerhead.
Not really when you’re trying to use it as a SRAAM and the thing is as large/larger than your BVRAAM’s…
Good point. Would still be an obvious improvement over the regular IRIS-T with the larger motor though. The CAMM (ASRAAM with a boost/turnover back for ground launch) is stated at >25km range btw, and i kinda doubt removing the cap would drop its range by more than like 5-10km at most.
Wiki doesnt quote a source so thats to be disregarded.
The seeker has to be protected from heat and whatever. it is the same seeker and warhead as the a2a, thats why the diameter is also 5 inches at the front. you cant just get rid of it and expect it to perform the same. the seeker might get damaged during the high speed when fired at long ranges
the purpose of slx wouldn’t be as an sraam. i should clarify that i’d see slm or slx be integrated more as a standoff weapon (if at all) rather than an sraam replacement.
my estimate for the diameter is based on this
with a length of 3450mm, it gives an approximate diameter of ~18-19cm
though depending on how big the rail thing on the side is, it might also be a bit under 18cm (if they used imperial dimensions then that could be 7 inches (177.8mm)
You have a point, I wonder why its stated to be 152mm… 190mm seems like an overclaim though, comparing diameter of the head section to that of the base i got around 171mm. Doesn’t change a whole lot tho, goes from slightly smaller than ASRAAM to slightly larger than it.
Maybe the SLM is too large/heavy for wingtip rail carriage, but maybe not (yes i nknow its not wingtip, i just dont have a great word for easily describing the position)
Indeed an IR seeker dome is really influence by temperature. And if your missile goes at mach 4 or more , then due to air friction , the ir some really is going to heat up and become unusable. That’s one of the reason there no METEOR IR.
The IRIS-T SLM is around 130kg iirc and is more modern than the MICA.
For a fair comparaison you have the MICA NG which is 112kg and also have 40km when ground launched.
That’s also mean the missile cannot be used LOBL so the main IRIS-T use (dogfigth or very close encounter), the missile cannot lock a target by itself (or has to drop the ballistic cap and then if not fired the missile has heavelly reduced range).
I don’t think anybody is interested by a capped IR missile on an airplane since you cannot shoot it LOBL.
If you really wanna shoot SAM missile from aircraft , go the US way and test SM-6 on F-18. Eu equivalent would be equipping an ASTER 15/30 on the centerline of a Rafale or Eurofigter.
But why do that when you radar only see 150/200km away and the Meteor is already good for this kind of range.
SLM is lighter than an amraam and a bit shorter.
but thats kinda also why i said it’d probably be integrated as an MRAAM instead of an SRAAM replacement and then be used instead of amraams in some cases.
in regards to using an aster on an air platform…
these long range missiles have a problem which is that they basically have to fly outside the atmosphere for these long ranges as they’re not powered for long (advantage of meteor) so while they can reach super long ranges, they’re practically useless against anything that moves even a bit outside of the predicted area because they cannot maneuver at those high altitudes. so there’s kind of a useful maximum range on missiles, until they increase the fuel amount on meteor i guess lmao
Aster’s max alt is stated to be 20km, far within atmosphere limits, and while it has to go ballistic for long range shots (60-120 km) its apogee would still be inside troposphere, maybe stratosphere at max
as for manoeuverability, it’s still a hit to kill with lateral thrusters, so it can technically still maneuver in a complete void, although for a limited amount of time
the biggest problem with integrating an aster on an air platform would be the weight (450kg, phoenix equivalent) and the difference of diameter between the booster (380mm) and the terminal dart (180mm).
There’s also the risk of the missile overspeeding if air launched, since it can reach M4.5 from a stand still in 3.5s, it means it could probably go M5.5-M6.0 if launched high at mach 2, and i don’t know if it can withstand it or not
I have a question: Regarding the CAPTOR-C radar, the only info I found about its range was 185km against targets with a RCS of 2.5m^2. I however have seen people claim that this radar is comparable with the Zhuk-M of the Mig29SMT which has noticeably less than that.
Are there any good public sources to read up on that?