The rest of us will enjoy what he brings to the community
Imagine flagging this
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What missile developments are being sought for Eurofighter?
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It’s ARH with DL, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see an IR seeker as its lighter than both ASRAAM and MICA and even 9X with a higher range quoted than all 3 afaik, with a TVC module too. In my humble opinion, I can see it replacing sidewinder finally after 80+ years.
In the A2A department just Meteor MLU after the JNAAM programme was cancelled. That should tie partner nations over until Tempest which will have its own set of dedicated weapons (A2A included) created and will probably be fielded on Typhoon too by the UK and Italy.
In Germany and Spain’s case there hasn’t been anything announced about A2A missiles for Typhoon or SCAF other than Meteor MLU of course which is an MBDA-wide endeavour and until SCAF has been fully outlined I wouldn’t expect anything as they won’t fully know where capability gaps will lie where they then may choose to develop a new missile if needed.
But also AIM-260 and/or Peregrine I don’t think are too outlandish to assume given -260 will be cheaper than Meteor (particularly MLU) and Peregrine is honestly just a very good missile if the marketing material is even vaguely correct.
The ASRAAM and Iris-T seem to be deemed to be good enough given Iris-T block 2 is about to release and ASRAAM BLK 6 has only just been released with relatively little known about any potential upgrades it may or may not have had.
lol, no.
You really think -260 will be >$2.5million a unit?
sidewinder will never fully disappear, mark my words AIM-9Z-27 will be the most effective close range missile against tyrannid hivemind fighters
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Initially due to low rate production absolutely.
they literally say it will be more expensive than amraam, enough to make amraam complimentary missile
Perhaps, but I expect mass production virtually immediately for P4 F-35 and F-15EX with foreign orders (even if of an export variant which is somewhat unlike the US).
only export F-15EX would be the israeli IA, they will probably get 260 though
AMRAAM is ‘pennies on the dollar’ compared to meteor.
AMRAAM is ~$1.1 million Meteor is~$2.5 million.
If its cheap and good enough it will sell and it has a large margin to be cheaper than Meteor and MLU likely won’t change that unless partners order more than the ~300 each they did on the last one, and that’s assuming that it is integrated no sooner than Meteor which has been endlessly delayed on F-35.
I believe Poland is also interested in the EX.
i think 260 already integrated onto multiple aircraft
On the export market it will primarily be in use on F-35 though I imagine. That’s the best aircraft to make use of its capabilities.
It has IOC on F-18 afaik.
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nope that would be F-22 due to current upgrade program + speed
on export would be F-35
Missile is projected by most sources to cost around $2 million once it is in full scale production.
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I meant for export everyone is buying F-35 if they can and if they can’t, then they probably couldn’t buy AIM-260 if they wanted to.
yeah probably true
So still estimated to be cheaper than Meteor though nowhere near as cheap as AMRAAM, in which case I suppose it comes to the missile capabilities as well as the standard geo-political discussion than it does whenever a country evaluates a new pricey and long-term investment.
Twice the cost, twice the performance; AIM-120D is estimated at 180km or so (100nm). If the AIM-260 is double that, it is a 200 nautical mile range missile.
Source
The AIM-174 is around $4.3 million USD by comparison and is a much larger missile. Range from surface launch is ~250 nautical miles… air to air launch is likely double that imo.
Source for cost
So what does the Meteor bring to the table besides the expanded NEZ compared to these missiles? I doubt the NEZ is larger than the AIM-174 but the missile itself is much smaller.
Like fighters, people will purchase what fits their requirements best I suppose.