Defence Business: MBDA offers JSF ASRAAM options | ADM May 2009

European missile manufacturer MBDA is exploring integration options for its AIM-132 Advanced Short-Range Air-Air Missile (ASRAAM) aboard Australian F-35A Lightning 2 Joint Strike Fighters.

The missile currently arms the RAAF's F/A-18A/B Hornets and the RAAF has not decided yet whether to request that it be integrated on the F-35A version of the JSF.

The ASRAAM will be integrated into the smaller internal weapons bay of the F-35B short take-off vertical landing (STOVL) variant for the UK Royal Air Force and Royal Navy, but no other customer has requested ASRAAM integration as yet.

The company announced March 5 that a RAAF Hornet had carried out the world's first ‘lock-after-launch' firing of an air-air missile aimed at a target behind the launch aircraft.

The Hornet scored a direct hit on a target drone 5km behind it using an ASRAAM missile.

MBDA told ADM at Avalon the Hornet firing demonstrates how the JSF's Distributed Aperture System (DAS), which provides the pilot with an all-round field of view, can enhance the utility of a missile such as ASRAAM.

The RAF and RN will also mount up to two ASRAAMs externally on the F-35B using a stealthy pylon and launcher rail to reduce radar cross-section.

This configuration could also be adopted by the RAAF, Thompson said, as the F-35A and -B have largely identical wings, and the mission system integration process would be the same for both variants.

While the aircraft's radar cross-section would be reduced by the carriage of external weapons, where the threat allows it this configuration would allow a snap-shot capability without opening the weapons bay doors; it would also allow the F-35 to engage targets using passive infra red sensors aboard the aircraft and missile, rather than alerting them by using active radar.