MBDA Meteor Missile now operational with the RAF

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Cacophonix
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MBDA Meteor Missile now operational with the RAF

#1 Post by Cacophonix » Mon Dec 10, 2018 5:32 am

It is reported that RAF Typhoon aircraft equipped with the MBDA Meteor missile were involved in a "classified incident in or near UK airspace last Wednesday.
The MoD has confirmed that in response to an incident last Wednesday, RAF Typhoon jets equipped with the new Meteor missile launched in defence of UK airspace.

RAF Typhoons maintain a constant state of readiness to defend the sovereignty of British skies. Quick Reaction Alert jets based at RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland are regularly scrambled to deter Russian aircraft approaching UK airspace over the North Sea.

The exact nature of last week's incident remained classified.

The introduction of Meteor represents the culmination of many years of research, development and testing to bring the advanced weapon into service on front-line aircraft.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/1 ... ace-first/
The Meteor’s roots can be traced back to the mid-1990st grew out of a common European need for a next generation BVR missile. This new missile had to have superior range and overall kinematic performance than the American AIM-120 AMRAAM. The UK, France, Sweden, Germany, Italy and Spain all participated in the program and although European aerospace and defense consortiums are nothing new, some aspects of what the Meteor brings to the fight is.

Meteor’s most impressive feature is its propulsion concept. Think of the Meteor more as an air-to-air cruise missile than as a traditional guided air-to-air rocket. For propulsion, it uses a solid fuel, variable flow, ducted rocket—also referred to as a ramjet—instead of a traditional rocket motor. What this means is that Meteor can throttle its engine during different phases of flight whereas a rocket delivers all of its potential energy in one continuous unmodulated burn cycle. This capability may not sound like a huge deal, but it is.

When a standard air-to-air missile is fired at a target it delivers the same amount of thrust over a certain period regardless of the tactical scenario. If the target can be reached without the rocket motor burning out, or shortly after it does so, the missile will have a high-energy state during its terminal attack phase. This will allow it to maneuver very hard, easily countering a target aircraft trying to evade the incoming missile. If the target is farther away, the missile will usually climb to a high altitude while its rocket motor is burning and then coast on its built-up energy with gravity on its side until it reaches the terminal phase of its flight (its final attack run).

If the target isn’t too far away, and the missile is still above it, it will dive down on the target in an attempt to maximize its ability to make hard maneuvers. The longer the shot, the less energy the missile will have for its critical terminal phase of flight, and that is not a good thing.

Enter the ramjet powered Meteor. Instead of burning off all its fuel right after launch it can throttle its engine back during cruise, thus saving fuel. As it approaches its target it can throttle up, eventually making its terminal attack while at its highest possible energy state, around Mach 4.5, even when fired over long ranges.
Read more here - http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/46 ... -the-world

And some good detail about this missile here...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteor_(missile)

Caco

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Re: MBDA Meteor Missile now operational with the RAF

#2 Post by AtomKraft » Thu Dec 27, 2018 2:54 pm

Thanks Cackers. All very interesting stuff.

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