ASRAAM

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ASRAAM
ASRAAM Missiles Fitted to RAF Typhoon Jet MOD 45155903.jpg
Two ASRAAM (centre) on an RAF Typhoon in 2007
TypeShort-range air-to-air missile
Place of originUnited Kingdom
Service history
In service1998
Used byRAF, IAF
Production history
Manufacturer MBDA UK
Unit cost>£200,000
Variants Common Anti-aircraft Modular Missile (Sea Ceptor/Sky Sabre)
Specifications
Mass88 kg (194 lb)
Length2.90 m (9 ft 6 in)
Diameter166 mm (6.5 in) (motor diameter) [1]
Wingspan450 mm
Warhead10 kg (22 lb) blast/fragmentation
Detonation
mechanism
 laser proximity fuze and impact
Enginedual-burn, high-impulse solid rocket motor [2]
Operational
range
25+ km [3] [4] [5]
Flight altitudeN/A
Maximum speed Mach 3+ [6]
Guidance
system
 infrared homing, 128×128 element focal plane array, with lock-on after launch (LOAL) and strapdown inertial guidance [6]
Launch
platform
RAF Typhoon of 3 Squadron fires ASRAAM in 2007 RAF Typhoon Firing ASRAAM Missile MOD 45155899.jpg
RAF Typhoon of 3 Squadron fires ASRAAM in 2007
ASRAAM at ILA 2006 AIM-132 ASRAAM.jpg
ASRAAM at ILA 2006

The Advanced Short Range Air-to-Air Missile (ASRAAM), also known by its United States designation AIM-132, is an imaging infrared homing air-to-air missile, produced by MBDA UK, that is designed for close-range combat. It is in service in the Royal Air Force (RAF), replacing the AIM-9 Sidewinder. ASRAAM is designed to allow the pilot to fire and then turn away before the opposing aircraft can close for a shot. It flies at well over Mach 3 to ranges in excess of 25 kilometres (16 mi). [3] It retains a 50 g maneuverability provided by body lift technology coupled with tail control. [7] [1]

Contents

The project started as a British-German collaboration in the 1980s. It was part of a wider agreement in which the US would develop the AIM-120 AMRAAM for medium-range use, while the ASRAAM would replace the Sidewinder with a design that would cover the great range disparity between Sidewinder and AMRAAM. Germany left the programme in 1989. The British proceeded on their own and the missile was introduced into RAF service in 1998. It is being introduced to the Indian Air Force, the Qatar Air Force and the Royal Air Force of Oman, and formerly saw service in the Royal Australian Air Force.

ASRAAM is also the base design for the Common Anti-Aircraft Modular Missile (CAMM) used by the British Army, Royal Navy and several allied forces in the surface-launched role. A surface-launched variant of ASRAAM itself has been improvised for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

History

Prior work

The first extensive use of IR missiles took place during the Vietnam War, where the results were dismal. The AIM-4 Falcon, the USAF's primary missile, scored hits only 9% of the time it was fired, while the US Navy's AIM-9 Sidewinder fared only slightly better, depending on the model. It became clear that there were two basic issues causing the problem. One was that the pilots were firing as soon as the missile saw the target in the seeker, any time it was in front of the launch aircraft. However, the seekers had a very limited field of view so if the target aircraft was flying at right angles to the launcher, it would fly out of the seeker's view even as it left the launch rail. The other was that the missile would be fired at ranges where it could not reach the target, running out of speed and simply falling to the ground. The US addressed this through new training that helped pilots understand the limits of their missiles and fly their aircraft into positions that maximized the chance of a hit.

One attempt to improve matters was made starting in the late 1960s by the Hawker Siddeley "Taildog", initially a private project but later officially supported as SRAAM. SRAAM's basic premise is that if pilots wanted to fire when the target was anywhere in front, then the missile should work in those situations. The result was a very short range but extremely maneuverable weapon that could turn rapidly enough to keep the target in view no matter the launch parameters. However, by 1974 the programme had been downgraded to a pure development project, and was later cancelled. The US started a similar project, AIM-95 Agile, to arm the new F-14 and F-15. This was similar to SRAAM in concept, but somewhat larger in order to offer range about the same or better than Sidewinder. Development was cancelled in 1975. Meanwhile, an entire different set of criteria led to the Dornier Viper, whose design maximized range. [8]

The main reason these projects were cancelled was that a new version of the Sidewinder was introduced, the AIM-9L. A variety of changes gave the L slightly better manoeuvrability, speed and range, but the main change was a new seeker that had much higher tracking angles and all-aspect capabilities that allowed head-on engagements. Although not nearly as great a step forward as the other designs, the "Lima" offered a significant improvement in capability over the older models with very little additional cost. British pilots achieved an 80% kill ratio with the L model during the Falklands War, a number matched by the Israeli Air Force a few months later over the Bekaa Valley. US experience with the Sidewinder since then has been mixed, with a percentage kill of just under 60% for the F-15, but almost zero for F-16s and F/A-18s, including a notable miss in 2017 when a 1970s-era Syrian Su-22 "Fitter" defeated a modern AIM-9X launched by a US Navy F/A-18. [9]

AMRAAM and ASRAAM

In a series of tests in the mid-1970s, the USAF found that their existing AIM-7 Sparrow missile had an effective range against fighter targets no better than the ostensibly much shorter-range Sidewinder. Because it was guided using the signals of the attacking aircraft's radar reflecting off the target, the launching aircraft had to keep flying towards the target for its radar to continue illuminating it. During the time the missile was flying, the target aircraft was closing the distance and had the chance to launch IR missiles before being hit. This resulted in mutual kills, obviously undesirable. [10]

The Fighter Mafia examined these results and concluded that they proved what they had been saying all along: a smaller, cheaper aircraft armed with simple but effective weapons is just as good as a more complex and expensive system but could be purchased in greater numbers. [10] The USAF looked at the same results and concluded the solution was to design a new weapon to replace the Sparrow. The primary aims were to extend the range to keep the IR-guided missile firing fighters out of launching range, using a self-contained active seeker to allow the launching fighter to turn away, and, if possible, to reduce the weight enough to allow it to be carried on launchers designed only for the Sidewinder. The result was the AIM-120 AMRAAM project, with the initial versions having a range of 50 to 75 km.

The AMRAAM also presented a new problem: between the Sidewinder's short range and AMRAAM's long range was a significant gap. AMRAAM was not really intended to be a snap-shot weapon like the Sidewinder, which remained desirable and the passive attack of a heatseeker can be an enormous advantage in combat. A new IR guided missile designed to act as a counterpart to AMRAAM would be a very different design than the AIM-9L, which had always been intended solely as a stop-gap.

In the 1980s, NATO countries signed a Memorandum of Agreement that the United States would develop the AMRAAM, while a primarily British and German team would develop a short-range air-to-air missile to replace the Sidewinder. The team included the UK (Hawker Siddeley, by this point known as BAe Dynamics) and Germany (Bodensee Gerätetechnik) sharing 42.5 per cent of the effort each, Canada at 10 per cent and Norway at 5 per cent. The US assigned this missile the name AIM-132 ASRAAM. [11]

New ASRAAM

The rapid decline and eventual fall of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s led to considerably less interest in the ASRAAM. By February 1988 the US was already agitating for changes. In July 1989 the Germans exited the programme effectively ending the agreement. Various reasons are often cited including the ending of the Cold War and full realisation of the capabilities of the Russian R-73 missile, but many commentators think this was a smokescreen for financial and defence industrial share issues. [12]

This left Britain in charge of the project and they began redefining it purely to RAF needs, sending out tenders for the new design in August 1989. This led to the selection of a new Hughes focal plane array imaging array seeker instead of the more conventional design previously used, dramatically improving performance and countermeasure resistance. A UK contest in 1990 examined the new ASRAAM, the French MICA and a new design from Bodensee Gerätetechnik, their version of the ASRAAM tuned for German needs. In 1992 the Ministry of Defence announced that ASRAAM had won the contest, and production began in March that year. The German design, by now part of Diehl BGT Defence, became the IRIS-T. [11]

While ASRAAM was entering production, momentum behind US-led industrial and political lobbying grew significantly and, combined with the strengthening European economy, forced the US government to conclude testing in June 1996 and move away from the ASRAAM program. [13]

UK development and manufacture went ahead and the first ASRAAM was delivered to the Royal Air Force (RAF) in late 1998. It equips the RAF's Typhoon. It was also used by the RAF's Harrier GR7 and Tornado GR4 forces until their retirement. In February 1998 ASRAAM was selected by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) for use on their F/A-18 Hornets following competitive evaluation of the improved ASRAAM, the Rafael Python 4 and the AIM-9X. [11] In March 2009 the RAAF successfully carried out the first in-service "Lock on After Launch" firing of an ASRAAM at a target located behind the wing-line of the "shooter" aircraft. [14]

Characteristics

ASRAAM is a high speed, extremely manoeuvrable, heat-seeking, air-to-air missile. Built by MBDA UK, it is designed as a "fire-and-forget" missile. [12] ASRAAM is intended to detect and launch against targets at much longer ranges, as far as early versions of the AMRAAM, in order to shoot down the enemy long before it closes enough to be able to fire its own weapons. In this respect the ASRAAM shares more in common with the AMRAAM than other IR missiles, although it retains high manoeuvrability. To provide the needed power, the ASRAAM is built on a 16.51 cm (6½ inch) diameter rocket motor compared with Sidewinder's (AIM-9M and X) and IRIS-T's 12.7 cm (5-inch) motors (which trace their history to the 1950s unguided Zuni rocket). This gives the ASRAAM significantly more thrust and therefore increased speed and range up to 50 kilometres (31 mi). [4]

The main improvement is a new 128×128 resolution imaging infrared focal plane array (FPA) seeker manufactured by Hughes before they were acquired by Raytheon. This seeker has a long acquisition range, high countermeasures resistance, approximately 90-degree off-boresight lock-on capability, and the possibility to designate specific parts of the targeted aircraft (like cockpit, engines, etc.). [15] The ASRAAM also has a LOAL (Lock-On After Launch) ability which is a distinct advantage when the missile is carried in an internal bay such as in the F-35 Lightning II. The ASRAAM warhead is triggered either by laser proximity fuse or impact. A laser proximity fuse was selected because RF fuses are vulnerable to EW intervention from enemy jammers. [16] The increased diameter of ASRAAM also provides space for increased computing power, and so improved counter counter-measure capabilities compared with other dogfighting missiles such as AIM-9X.[ citation needed ]

Developments

In 2014, India's defence ministry signed a £250m ($428m) contract with MBDA to equip its SEPECAT/Hindustan Aeronautics Jaguar strike aircraft with the company's ASRAAM short range air-to-air missile. MBDA's offering overcame competition from competitors including Rafael's Python-5 missile, emerging as the winner in 2012. This built on an existing 2012 order for 493 MICA missiles to replace Matra S-530D and Magic II missiles as part of an Indian Air Force Mirage 2000 update. [17]

In September 2015, the UK's MoD signed a £300 million contract for a new and improved version of the ASRAAM that would leverage new technological developments, including those from the CAMM missile. This variant would replace the current one when it goes out of service in 2022. A further £184 million contract was awarded in August 2016 to provide additional stocks of the new ASRAAM for the UK's F-35B. This new variant will be operationally ready on the Eurofighter Typhoon in 2018 and on the UK's F-35Bs from 2022 onwards. [5] [18] [19] [ needs update ]

In February 2017, successful firing of ASRAAMs from F-35 Lightning IIs were conducted at Naval Air Station Patuxent River and Edwards Air Force Base in the USA. This represented the first time that a British-designed missile had been fired from an F-35 JSF and the first time any non-US missile had ever been fired from the aircraft. [20]

As of 31 January 2019 the Indian Air Force is testing the compatibility of the ASRAAM weapons system with the Sukhoi Su-30MKI, and aims to make the ASRAAM its standardised dogfighting missile across multiple aircraft types, including the Tejas. Final testing and operational clearance are to be achieved by the end of 2019. [21] Bharat Dynamics Limited will produce the missile at its Bhanoor unit. The facility will also offer maintenance, repair & overhaul services. [22]

Variants

ASRAAM P3I

In 1995, Hughes and British Aerospace collaborated on the "P3I ASRAAM", a version of ASRAAM as a candidate for the AIM-9X program.[ citation needed ] The ultimate winner was the Hughes submission using the same seeker but with the rocket motor, fuse and warhead of the AIM-9M. The latter was a US Air Force stipulation to ease the logistics burden and save money by reusing as much as possible of the existing AIM-9 Sidewinder, of which 20,000 remained in the US inventory.[ citation needed ]

ASRAAM Block 6

ASRAAM Block 6 standard, developed under the ASRAAM Sustainment programme, entered service on the Typhoon in April 2022, [23] and will enter F-35 service in 2024. The Block 6 introduces new and updated sub-systems, and replaces external cooling with a new internal cooler. The seeker has been replaced with a new UK built seeker of higher resolution. There are no US-made components, meaning that it does not come under ITAR restrictions and can therefore be exported without US approval. [24] [25]

Common Anti-Air Modular Missile (CAMM)

At the DSEi conference in September 2007 it was announced that the UK MoD was funding a study by MBDA to investigate a replacement for the Rapier and Sea Wolf missiles for the Royal Navy and British Army respectively. The Common Anti-Air Modular Missile (CAMM) would share components with ASRAAM, such as the very low signature rocket motor from Roxel and the warhead and proximity fuze from Thales but with updated electronics, an active RF seeker and data link so allowing for mid-course corrections from suitably-equipped land or even air platforms. [26] [27] CAMM began entering service in 2018 and has since be sold to nine other nations for both land and naval use. It has since become a family of weapons with a number of additional missile variants on order or in development.

Operational history

Royal Air Force

On 14 December 2021 a RAF Typhoon operating against Islamic State in southern Syria shot down a hostile drone with an ASRAAM missile. This was the first time the British military had shot down an enemy aircraft since the Falklands War. [28]

Armed Forces of Ukraine (Surface-launched ASRAAM)

In August 2023 it emerged that Ukraine had been provided an unknown number of improvised ground-based launch platforms for ASRAAM. developed in four months by a joint MBDA and MoD team, It has also been used by Armed Forces of Ukraine to provide short range air defence (SHORAD) against Russian aerial threats such as helicopters, cruise missiles and drones such as the HESA Shahed 136. Images of the system appear to show a twin-launcher mounted on the back of a Supacat 6x6 vehicle (specifically the older Soothsayer ECM carriers) allowing it to remain mobile, whilst guidance can be provided by a Hawkeye electro-optical suite. The missile has a "fire and forget" capacity, compared to the already donated Starstreak missile that requires a line of sight to the target. Reportedly, the system has achieved a 90% success rate during operations. This system is not to be confused with the dedicated surface-launched development of ASRAAM, CAMM or the British Army's Sky Sabre air defence system. [29] [30] [31] [32]

Operators

Map with current operators of ASRAAM in blue and former operators in red. ASRAAM operators-2023-08-14.png
Map with current operators of ASRAAM in blue and former operators in red.

Current operators

Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  United Kingdom

Royal Air Force / Fleet Air Arm - Equips the Typhoon and F-35B Lightning in RAF and Royal Navy service.

Flag of India.svg  India

Indian Air Force - on 8 July 2014 India signed a deal to procure 384 ASRAAMs from MBDA UK to replace the aging Matra Magic R550, to be integrated onto the SEPECAT Jaguar strike aircraft. [33]

Flag of Ukraine.svg  Ukraine

Armed Forces of Ukraine - In August 2023 a surface-launched version of ASRAAM was reported mounted on a Supacat HMT chassis in Ukraine. [29] [30] [31]

Future operators

Flag of Qatar.svg  Qatar
Qatar Air Force
Flag of Oman.svg  Oman
Royal Air Force of Oman

Former operators

Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia

Royal Australian Air Force - Equipped the F/A-18A/B Hornet from 2004 until the aircraft's retirement in 2021. The RAAF uses the AIM-9X with the F/A-18F, EA-18G and F-35A. [34]

See also

Related Research Articles

The AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile(AMRAAM) ( AM-ram) is an American beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile capable of all-weather day-and-night operations. It uses active transmit-receive radar guidance instead of semi-active receive-only radar guidance. When an AMRAAM missile is launched, NATO pilots use the brevity code "Fox Three".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eurofighter Typhoon</span> 1994 multi-role combat aircraft family by Eurofighter

The Eurofighter Typhoon is a European multinational twin-engine, supersonic, canard delta wing, multirole fighter. The Typhoon was designed originally as an air-superiority fighter and is manufactured by a consortium of Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo that conducts the majority of the project through a joint holding company, Eurofighter Jagdflugzeug GmbH. The NATO Eurofighter and Tornado Management Agency, representing the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain, manages the project and is the prime customer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Panavia Tornado ADV</span> Series of interceptor aircraft

The Panavia Tornado Air Defence Variant (ADV) is a long-range, twin-engine swing-wing interceptor aircraft developed by the European Panavia Aircraft GmbH consortium. It was a specialised derivative of the multirole Panavia Tornado.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meteor (missile)</span> European beyond visual range air-to-air missile

The Meteor is a European active radar guided beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile (BVRAAM) developed and manufactured by MBDA. It offers a multi-shot capability, and has the ability to engage highly maneuverable targets such as jet aircraft, and small targets such as UAVs and cruise missiles in a heavy electronic countermeasures (ECM) environment with a range far in excess of 200 kilometres (110 nmi).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ALARM</span> British air-launched anti-radiation missile

ALARM is a British anti-radiation missile designed primarily to destroy enemy radars for the purpose of Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD). It was used by the RAF and is still used by the Royal Saudi Air Force. The weapon was retired by the UK at the end of 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IRIS-T</span> Medium-range infrared homing missile

The IRIS-T is a medium range infrared homing air-to-air missile available in both air-to-air and ground defence surface-to-air variants. It also is called AIM-2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Air-to-air missile</span> Missile fired from the air at airborne targets

An air-to-air missile (AAM) is a missile fired from an aircraft for the purpose of destroying another aircraft. AAMs are typically powered by one or more rocket motors, usually solid fueled but sometimes liquid fueled. Ramjet engines, as used on the Meteor, are emerging as propulsion that will enable future medium- to long-range missiles to maintain higher average speed across their engagement envelope.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MICA (missile)</span> Beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile

The MICA, abbreviated from its full name Missile d'Interception, de Combat et d'Auto-défense or alternate translation is a French anti-air multi-target, all weather, fire-and-forget short and medium-range missile system manufactured by MBDA France. It is intended for use both by air platforms as individual missiles as well as ground units and ships, which can be equipped with the rapid fire MICA Vertical Launch System. It is fitted with a thrust vector control (TVC) system. It was developed from 1982 onward by Matra. The first trials occurred in 1991, and the missile was commissioned in 1996 to equip the Rafale and Mirage 2000. It is a replacement for both the Super 530 in the interception role and the Magic II in the dogfighting role.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sea Wolf (missile)</span> Surface-to-air

Sea Wolf is a naval surface-to-air missile system designed and built by BAC, later to become British Aerospace (BAe) Dynamics, and now MBDA. It is an automated point-defence weapon system designed as a short-range defence against both sea-skimming and high angle anti-ship missiles and aircraft. The Royal Navy has fielded two versions, the GWS-25 Conventionally Launched Sea Wolf (CLSW) and the GWS-26 Vertically Launched Sea Wolf (VLSW) forms. In Royal Navy service Sea Wolf is being replaced by Sea Ceptor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brimstone (missile)</span> British air-to-surface missile

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Skyflash</span> Medium-range air-to-air missile

The Skyflash, or Sky Flash in marketing material, was a medium-range semi-active radar homing air-to-air missile derived from the US AIM-7 Sparrow missile and carried by Royal Air Force McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantoms and Tornado F3s, Italian Aeronautica Militare and Royal Saudi Air Force Tornados and Swedish Flygvapnet Saab Viggens.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">R.550 Magic</span> Short-range air-to-air missile

The R.550 Magic is a short-range air-to-air missile designed in 1965 by French company Matra to compete with the American AIM-9 Sidewinder, and it was made backwards compatible with the Sidewinder launch hardware.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NASAMS</span> Norwegian surface-to-air missile system

NASAMS is a distributed and networked short- to medium-range ground-based air defense system developed by Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace (KDA) and Raytheon. The system defends against unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), helicopters, cruise missiles, unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs), and fixed wing aircraft, firing any of a wide range of existing missiles.

The Air Combat Evaluation (ACEVAL) and the Air Intercept Missile Evaluation (AIMVAL) were two back-to-back Joint Test & Evaluations chartered by the United States Department of Defense that ran from 1974-78 at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. Both the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy participated, contributing a team of F-15 Eagle and F-14 Tomcat fighter aircraft and using the local F-5E Aggressor aircraft as the Red Force. The fundamental question that needed to be answered was one of "quantity vs quality". Mock engagements showed that cheaper, lower-technology fighters armed with all-aspect missiles were able to destroy the more advanced, expensive F-15's and F-14's. These results of the AIMVAL/ACEVAL testing led to the Air Force decision to structure its fighter forces with a balance of cheaper F-16's along with the more expensive F-15's, and the Navy took a similar strategy in procuring cheaper F/A-18's along with the more expensive F-14's. The results had other impacts as well, such as decisions regarding missile development.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CAMM (missile family)</span> Family of surface-to-air missiles developed by MBDA UK

The CAMM is a family of surface-to-air missiles developed by MBDA UK for the United Kingdom. CAMM is derived from and shares some common features and components with the ASRAAM, but with updated electronics, a soft vertical launch system, and an active radar homing seeker. Beyond the UK, the CAMM family is either currently in-use or has been ordered by nine other nations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AIM-9 Sidewinder</span> Short-range air-to-air missile

The AIM-9 Sidewinder is a short-range air-to-air missile. Entering service with the United States Navy in 1956 and the Air Force in 1964, the AIM-9 is one of the oldest, cheapest, and most successful air-to-air missiles. Its latest variants remain standard equipment in most Western-aligned air forces. The Soviet K-13, a reverse-engineered copy of the AIM-9B, was also widely adopted.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SRAAM</span> Short-range air-to-air missile

The Short Range Air-to-Air Missile, or SRAAM for short, initially known as Taildog, was an experimental British infrared homing air-to-air missile, developed between 1968 and 1980 by Hawker Siddeley Dynamics. It was designed to be very manoeuvrable for use at short range in a dogfight situation. SRAAM was unusual in that it was launched from a launch tube instead of being attached to a launch rail, allowing two to be carried on a single mounting point.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SLAMRAAM</span> Surface-to-air missile adapted from air-to-air weapon

The SLAMRAAM (Surface Launched AMRAAM) was the United States Army program to develop a Humvee-based surface-to-air missile launcher for the AIM-120 AMRAAM missile, manufactured by Raytheon Technologies and Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace. Surface-launched AMRAAM missile was first used in Kongsberg's NASAMS air defense system, fielded in 1995.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SPEAR 3</span> Air-to-surface missile

The Select Precision Effects At Range (SPEAR) Capability 3, or simply referred to as SPEAR 3 is a future British air-to-ground and possibly anti-ship cruise missile that could also be considered a loitering munition. It is currently planned to be integrated on the Eurofighter Typhoon, F-35B Lightning and possibly Tempest.

MBDA UK is the British division of the pan-European missile systems company MBDA. Formed in 2001, the company has developed, both independently and in cooperation, a range of missile systems, including the CAMM missile family, Storm Shadow cruise missile, ASRAAM air-to-air missile and Meteor beyond-visual-range missile (BVRAAM).

References

Citations

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  26. ↑ "Missiles and Fire Support at DSEi 2007", Defense update, archived from the original on 5 September 2008, retrieved 27 December 2007.
  27. ↑ "Common Anti Air Modular Missile (CAMM) – Think Defence". thinkdefence.co.uk. Archived from the original on 22 March 2018. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  28. ↑ Beale, Jonathan (16 December 2021). "RAF Typhoon jet shoots down 'small hostile drone' in Syria". BBC News. Archived from the original on 16 December 2021.
  29. 1 2 Newdick, Thomas; Rogoway, Tyler (4 August 2023). "Air-To-Air Missiles From UK Now Being Used By Ukraine As SAMs". The Drive. Archived from the original on 4 August 2023. Retrieved 5 August 2023.
  30. 1 2 "Advanced Short Range Air to Air Missile (ASRAAM) - Think Defence". www.thinkdefence.co.uk. 5 November 2022. Retrieved 5 January 2024.
  31. 1 2 "Ground-Launched Asraam Achieving 90% Hit Rate In Ukraine | Aviation Week Network". aviationweek.com. Retrieved 5 January 2024.
  32. ↑ "The UK bolsters Ukraine's air defence after Putin's latest air strikes". GOV.UK. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
  33. ↑ Dhanjal, Swaraj Singh (8 July 2014). "India, UK sign deals worth 370 million". Live Mint. Archived from the original on 9 July 2014. Retrieved 8 July 2014.
  34. ↑ "MBDA ASRAAM in service with the RAAF has been successfully fired from the aircraft". MBDA . Archived from the original on 27 November 2020. Retrieved 19 November 2020.
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