Fun fact, theres already a “Rafale Eater” and it was an F-4F with 5 claimed kills against the Rafale back in 2008…
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Apparently the PL-15E at Zhuhai 2024 had a longer stated range than the one shown in 2022. That might explain it
okay it says max range is => 145km not that 145 is just its max range
very understated max range i must say lol
is pl-15e longest range conventional air to air missile? not counting massive missiles above ~250 kg. 200+km range is the longest i’ve ever seen
Is Meteor above 250kg? We know AIM-260 has been in testing for a while now too, with the recent F-22 AMRAAM range record breaking it looks pretty promising for the AIM-260 which is meant to have significantly more range and compete with/outperform the PL-15
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Meteor has a claimed range of 200km+ and likely has a much larger NEZ along with less altitude dependent flight performance while being sub 200kg, but its a Ramjet missile, so not exactly “conventional”
The “longest kill” claim is worthless, since they not only didnt claim a range, they didnt even bother giving any numbers for this kill or the last “longest range” kill. Personally it stinks of “man, that 200km+ PL-15E kill is a bad look, we gotta say something to pretend were still in this!”
As for the AIM-260, iirc it has the same form factor as the AIM-120, so its actual performance uplift likely isnt as significant as some ppl seem to think it’ll be, similar to how the AIM-9X has the same form factor as the AIM-9M and though they got some more range out of it, its still behind all it peers. Theres only so much you can do with a smaller form factor at the end of the day. That’s why I jokingly call it the AIM-260 “jobs program”.
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meteor is both eurofighter and rafales longest range missile right? unless eurofighter can equip aim 260 which is likely because its the same size as amraam apparently. rafale, not sure if it can carry anything other than meteor and mica for bvr
wait actually I forgot astra mk 3 exists in testing and has 340 km range (ramjet), but operationally it’s likely pl-15 or meteor. also i feel like it’s kinda unfair comparing indian rafale to j10c, becuase rafale was stuck without its pristine bvr missiles (meteor) and only had micas ems while j10c had 200 km pl-15s. so logically it makes sense j10c shot down the rafale when rafale would never have a chance of engaging it with its mediocre micas
isnt the meteor a british missile ? from the eurofighter ??
I wonder how differently it would’ve gone if India had AIM-120D-3 on their Rafales, or even Astra mk2
The only reason I can see Aim-260 being acquired is because the US drags their feet for Meteor intergration for next decade+
But Meteor NG is in development, so depends on how that is coming along, and I think fairly well. Id assume NG planned to be in service for the Tempest/GCAP around 2030-2035
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Form factor just means it has to have a similar weight and close enough size that it fits in most places AMRAAM fits. Not really comparable to 9M and 9X blk 1
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Atm, yes.
Unlikely to actually outrange the meteor imo, and even more unlikely to out-NEZ the meteor simply due to the innate advantage of a throttleable ducted ramjet vs a standard or dual pulse rocket motor in that regard, but im just an internet schmuck so take it with a grain of salt.
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whats the name of the next missile to replace the aim 9X that there devolping ?
MBDA. So is a combo of nations (MBDA is made up of Airbus, BAE and Leonardo)
I think the MoD put in the original design requirements though
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Peregrine but I haven’t heard any news about it for a while
found it
6 years ago, yeah I wouldn’t get too attached to it