Rafale's reign in a top-tier RB?

meteor is 100km no escape zone, not range

aim 120a max range is already 125ish km, doubt aim 260 is only 25 km better lol.
this is for mach 2 launch against mach 2 target at 10km altitude if i remember right, battery life of 80 seconds

yeah honestly the most impressive part to me about the ~200km AIM-120D shots is that it was on a subsonic target, with how high missiles can loft and launching from a fast platform at high altitude, range if anything is more of a function of battery life than pure kinematics

Lol the good old aim-174, not even in service is it

yeah expect aim 120d to be 200+km with a mach 2 launch against a mach 2 target at 10km alt

what? Im pretty sure it’s in service with the fa18e

it is?

has been officially acknowledged as in service for about 5 years with rumors for around 5 more

Trialled at a navy event ≠ widespread service

It popped up last year, what do you mean a decade of service xD

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again thats the thing, the statement (and info from the test range) show it as being on a subsonic target

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last I checked 2021 is not last year

idk what to tell you, it was publicly revealed in 2024 but photos from earlier

and supposedly rumors since 2015

The U.S. Navy confirmed in July 2024 that the weapon in operationally deployed.

The AIM-174B Has Been Nicknamed ‘Gunslinger’ - The Aviationist

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ie: its a useless PR statement you’re trying to pass off as a fact…

Btw, the “longest range shot ever with an AMRAAM” thing came shortly after a PL-15E dusted a Rafale in India from a claimed distance of over 200km, so maybe its just unfortunate timing, but it reeks of “Guys! we’re still relevant in the AAM game! I swear! We did a long range shot too!!!” on the part of the americans that already admitted they were outranged by their rivals atm due to sitting on their thumbs and congratulating themselves for it for too long.

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It’s insane how we seemingly know more about the launch and range parameters for late Aim-120 variants and Aim-260 than French mains know about launch parameters for the MICA range claims…

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what are you going on about, we have known live fire testing has been ongoing for some time now

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to be fair there’s also a billion unclassified docs from the british national archives which is why we know so much about amraam… not really a fair comparison, unsure if the french have something similar that has the same wealth of information as the british national archives

I am miffed that people feel the need to dick measure with a missile that isn’t even on service jets yet, while claiming that confirmed kills are somehow less valuable as a performance metric than media statements and record attempts 🫩

AIM-9B better missile than PL-17 and Meteor because it has more confirmed kills?

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Aim-9B isn’t a BVRAAM, stop arguing in bad faith