This Ain’t Your Daddy’s AMRAAM



This Is Not Your Father’s AMRAAM

By: Lt Col Tim Morris, AMRAAM Phase 4 Program Manager

On 9 December 2003, The Counterair Joint System Program Office (JSPO) awarded a contract to Raytheon Missile Systems to begin development of the Phase 4 Advance Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM). In the Phase 4 development, the JSPO program will replace the AMRAAM Inertial Reference Unit with a tightly coupled GPS/Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) and will enhance the AMRAAM datalink capabilities. This addition of the GPS/IMU reduces on-aircraft and in-flight alignment errors. When combined with Phase 4 software improvements, the GPS/IMU will deliver to our Air Force and Navy warfighters, better missile accuracy, lethality, and range. In terms of datalink enhancements, Phase 4 will replace the current receive-only datalink with a 2-way datalink. Previously, the missile received guidance messages from the launch aircraft, directing the missile toward the target. When Phase 4 (AIM-120D) fields in late 2007, the AMRAAM will be able to report back to the launch aircraft how things are going “down-range”. This and other new datalink features will increase survivability and lethality, and will expand the missile engagement envelope supporting High-Off-Bore-Sight employment.

Phase 4 is the latest AMRAAM upgrade which began development in the 1970s and reached Initial Operational Capability (IOC) in 1991. Since fielding, the JSPO has been upgrading the AMRAAM and delivering new hardware about every four years and new software about every two years. Nearly every component of the missile has been improved incrementally over the years with significant improvements to the warhead, rocket motor, fuse, airframe, and control section.

Currently, the Phase 3 program (AIM-120C-7) is upgrading the entire AMRAAM “front end” (guidance section). The “C-7” is nearing the completion of development testing, having scored a fourth consecutive kill on 16 December 2003 at White Sands Missile Range. Phase 3 operational testing will begin next Spring. The Phase 3 AMRAAM will expand our capabilities against some of the most challenging electronic attack (EA) techniques our warfighters are expected to face. These capabilities will field on Air Force and Navy fighters in early 2005 and will be the primary weapon for the F/A-22 when it reaches IOC in December 2005.

Between fielding of the Phase 3 and Phase 4 capabilities, the Counterair JPSO is also already working on a software upgrade that will take further advantage of the new Phase 3 hardware, delivering increased lethality and countering additional EA techniques. These additional capabilities, ready in 2006, will be available in all C-7 missiles, including any previously fielded units, via the AMRAAM field reprogramming capability.

With this sustained investment in AMRAAM, coupled with our successes in Iraq, Bosnia, and Afghanistan, some have questioned the continued investment in “Air-to-Air” or Air Superiority. Indeed, the United States has enjoyed the benefits of Air Superiority in recent conflicts. Even as far back as DESERT STORM, we have not seen a formidable foe in the air. Certainly we must concede that Iraq learned their lesson during DESERT STORM – if your airplanes take to the sky, they will most assuredly die. In Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), not only did the Iraqi Air Force not take to the sky, they buried some of their aircraft in the sand. I can only imagine the look on the crew chief’s face when they presented him with the idea of burying his airplanes in the sand. Now that is an impressive measure of respect for the worlds’ best air forces (Air Force, Navy and Coalition)! But that “respect” was not handed to the U.S. It was the result of a tremendous investment in aircraft and missile technology and the finest training and personnel our country can offer. That investment delivered a lethal combination that no one has dared challenge in recent years.

So why is Air Superiority important? Air Superiority affords our forces, surface and air, the freedom to maneuver. This freedom allows us to dictate the time, place, and pace of operations. After the invasion at Normandy, General Eisenhower stated, “If I didn’t have air supremacy, I wouldn’t be here”. Air Superiority allows our forces to operate without the threat of enemy aircraft dropping bombs upon their heads. Since the Korean War, no U.S. ground forces have been killed by enemy air attack. That is a good record and one that needs to be maintained. In May of 1996, Secretary of Defense William J. Perry said of Air Dominance, "We had it in Desert Storm. We liked it, and we want to continue to have it."

But we cannot afford to rest upon our laurels; Iraq, Serbia, and Afghanistan are not exactly the most technologically advanced nations on the planet. Other, more advanced nations have continued to invest in fourth and fifth generation fighter technology and advanced weapons. These near-peer adversaries pose a very different threat, not just in technological advances, but also in raw numbers. You only need to look back to Vietnam, where we were able to gain localized air superiority, but at a tremendous cost of aircraft and lives. The exchange rates in Vietnam were unacceptable. Since then we have invested heavily to gain an overwhelming advantage in the air. As Secretary Perry added in support of the 1997 Defense Budget, “We're not looking for an equal or fair fight. If we get in an air fight with somebody, we want it to be unfair. We want the advantage to be wholly and completely on our side."

The cornerstone of the “unfair” fight has been an AMRAAM loaded on a U.S. fighter. Today, the Counterair JSPO continues to sharpen the “pointy end of the spear” to ensure Air Dominance is available for our Joint Forces and coalition partners. The AMRAAM continues to evolve to ensure that current and future battles in the sky will not be “fair fights”.

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