The Best Air-to-Air Missile in the World Is Now in Service

The technical details of air-to-air missiles are extremely complicated, but the concept is simple — destroy your target before the target destroys you.

One way to improve the odds is to add an air-breathing ramjet engine to give the weapon a boost. That’s the design philosophy behind the Meteor, a 419-pound rail-launched MiG killer which entered service for the first time with the Swedish air force on July 11.

“The Swedish air force is now in its Initial Operational Capability phase with the Meteor,” Swedish air force chief Maj. Gen. Mats Helgesson said. “The Meteor missile is the most lethal radar-guided missile in operational service.”

Meteor’s exact specifications are classified, and it being the best in the world is debatable. But it’s not unreasonable — and that’s because of the missile’s ramjet.

Here’s how it works. A conventional solid-fuel booster accelerates the Meteor after launch, like most air-to-air missiles. But while roaring through the air, the missile opens up a chute, allowing air to rush into the engine, which heats up the oxygen and propels the supersonic missile to Mach 4.

Not only that, the missile can adjust how much oxygen it breathes, conserving energy during the coast phase, only to take a deep breath in the final moments before hitting a target.

The result is that if a targeted plane tries to dodge out of the way, Meteor can overcome it by summoning more thrust, and thus more maneuverability, during those precious few seconds.

International arms consortiums and governments do not like to openly advertise the specific capabilities of their weapons. That’s especially the case with high-tech ramjets, and all the more because Russia and China are developing their own versions to compete with Meteor.

We do know that one test off Scotland sent the missile “well in excess of 100 kilometers,” an MBDA engineer told AINonline. The firm has boasted of a “no-escape zone” three times that of the U.S.-made AIM-120 AMRAAM — likewise classified.

The no-escape zone is an aerial combat term for a cone-shaped area — determined by the missile’s capabilities — from where a targeted aircraft cannot escape solely using its own maneuverability.

Countermeasures and spoofing is a last resort, but otherwise the aircraft has a high probability of getting toasted.

Range and speed is all well and good. But Meteor also needs to home in on a target for the shot to count. For this, Meteor has a datalink connecting its guidance system to the fighter and its more powerful, longer-range sensors.

Meteor is strongly associated with Sweden, although it’s very much a broader European project with the missile conglomerate MBDA working as the manufacturer.

Sweden is the first country to make the Meteor operational, but Britain, Italy, Spain, Germany and France are next.

Germany, Spain and Britain intend to equip Meteors on their Eurofighter Typhoons. France will get the missiles for its Rafales. F-35 Joint Strike Fighters could follow.

The country is neutral, and its air force hasn’t fired a shot in anger since the Congo crisis in the early 1960s. But Sweden is a major weapons exporter — the 12th largest according to 2014 data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Sweden works closely with the NATO alliance during military exercises. And in May, the Swedish parliament ratified an agreement allowing NATO more room to conduct exercises in the country.

The reason is clearly Russia, which has repeatedly violated Sweden’s airspace and carried out simulated nuclear attack runs on the country. Although greater cooperation with the alliance is controversial within Sweden.

MBDA designed the Meteor to work with the F-35. But as of now, the Block 4 software needed to fire it from the stealth jet isn’t available — and won’t be until the early 2020s in the best case scenario. In May 2016, the U.S. Government Accountability Office warned that the F-35’s software’s “cost, schedule and performance goals” were at risk.

By the time the Pentagon sorts that out, the Meteor will have served for years … with the Gripen.

MBDA is a European developer and manufacturer of missiles. It was formed by a merger of

French Aérospatiale-Matra Missiles (of EADS, now Airbus Group),

Italian Alenia Marconi Systems (of Finmeccanica)

and British Matra BAe Dynamics (of BAE Systems) in December 2001.

In 2015 the company had 10,000 employees. In 2015, MBDA recorded orders for €5.2bn and achieved an order book of €15.1 bn.

MBDA works with over 90 armed forces worldwide.

Meteor can overcome it by summoning more thrust, and thus more maneuverability, during those precious few seconds.

Well, the ramjet is unique as it provides a source of constantly available and throttable thrust. The current generations of AAMs now rely solely on a rocket boost phase then usually do their dirty work in a coast phase, all the while then, losing energy.

The claim they make about more thrust equalling more manuverability can be questionable. Certainly that added thrust can increase the range and energy of the missile in the flight phase. Yet, absolute speed does not equate to more maneuverability as implied in the statement.

The maneuverability is dependent on how the missile guidance, control surfaces or the exhaust nozzles use the available thrust. The SAM-2 is a mach 3 class weapon that was under thrust through most of it's flight envelope yet could be easily outturned. That is because the control surfaces could not overcome the inertia of the missile body quickly enough to follow a tighter turn capable target. The flight control surfaces of the Meteor in the picture are aligned with the current class of AAM missiles in the world therefore I would assume their preformance capabilities are similar.

If the meteor uses thrust vectoring in addition to flight control surfaces, then it can make up some of the maneuvering defecit. Also, it has less mass and length than a SAM-2 to move around with the thrust available so it probably has a tighter turn radius. But, I doubt it can follow a target with thrust vectoring nozzles and super manuvering capability as absolutely as the PR claims. It's primary advantage is that it travels faster and lessens the pilot's capability to formulate an effective evasive maneuver.

Missile guidance is likely as state of the art as anything available. I assume it is actively homing and seeking throughout all flight phases and is "fire and forget" in design. However the seeker cannot hit what it cannot see or track. A target can achieve the "cannot see" status with stealth, ECM or by out maneuvering the seeker's capability to track it.

A third limitation is the missile structure. The body becomes vulnerable to deformation during hi G maneuvering though both static and dynamic changes. The capability of a missile to stay intact while executing high G turns is a big factor. As the missile accelerates it burns propellant which does two things: Lightens the missile and consumes fuel. As the fuel is consumed, any function the fuel has to "stiffen" the missile body is lost and the consumption also moves the missile body center of balance constantly changing it's basic flight characteristics.

The Meteor appears to be good if not great at what it does and it can do it faster and farther than current generation AAMs according to the claims. However, it has the same maneuverability challenges the all AAMs do and going faster isn't the "perfect" solution as claimed.

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