AIM-120 AMRAAM

Mission

The AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) is a new generation air-to-air missile. It has an all-weather, beyond-visual-range capability. It is a high-supersonic, day/night/all weather Beyond Visual Range (BVR), fire-and-forget air-to-air missile.

Features

AMRAAM is a follow-on to the AIM-7 Sparrow missile series. The AIM-120 is faster, smaller and lighter, and has improved capabilities against low-altitude targets. It incorporates an active radar with an inertial reference unit and micro-computer system, which makes the missile less dependent upon the fire-control system of the aircraft. Once the missile closes in on a target, its active radar guides it to intercept. This enables the pilot to aim and fire several missiles simultaneously at multiple targets. The pilot may then perform evasive maneuvers while the missiles guide themselves to their targets.

Versions

The AIM-120B missile was the result of the two block AMRAAM Producibility Enhancement Program. The B model incorporates a new digital processor, erasable programmable read only memory, and five major electronic unit hardware chassis upgrades.

The AIM-120C will include a redesigned warhead and improvements to the rocket motor, fuzing logic, guidance algorithms, and ECCM logic. Modified for internal carriage on the F-22, the AIM-120C will have "clipped wings" to reduce its box size from 17.4 to 12.5 inches.

Background

The AIM-120 program completed its conceptual phase in February 1979 when the US Air Force selected two of five competing contractors, Hughes Aircraft and Raytheon, to continue into the validation phase. During the 33-month validation phase the contractors continued missile development by building actual hardware to demonstrate their technological concepts.

The program phase concluded in December 1981 after both contractors demonstrated that their flight-test missiles could satisfy US Air Force and US Navy requirements. The US Air Force competitively selected Hughes Aircraft’s Missile System Group as the full-scale developer. During the full-scale development phase, Hughes Aircraft completed missile development and went into production. More than 200 of the test missiles were launched during flight tests at Eglin AFB (Florida) White Sands Missile Range (New Mexico) and Point Mugu (California).

In October 1995 a contract was signed with Hughes and Raytheon for the delivery of the AIM-120.

On December 12, 1997, an AIM-120 was successfully launched from a European upgraded F-16 for the first time. The launch by a Danish MLU F-16, assigned to the F-16 Combined Test Force at Edwards AFB, was the first F-16 AMRAAM firing conducted by an international customer.

Combat Use

In December 1992 — during Operation Southern Watch — a USAF F-16 pilot fired the first AMRAAM in actual combat, shooting down a MiG-25 Foxbat during a confrontation over southern Iraq.

The AIM-120 was also used in another engagement in Southern Iraq, and successfully downed the target.

Another F-16 scored a third AMRAAM kill in Bosnia on February 28, 1994 (see UNPROFOR, 1994).

On the first day of Operation Allied Force, March 24, 1999, a Dutch F-16AM downed a Serbian MiG-29 fighter. For the RNLAF it was for the first time since the end of World War 2 that an aircraft was downed.

AIM-120 Data