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MBDA ASRAAM in service with the RAAF has been successfully fired from the aircraft

PR-ASRAAM First Firings from F-35While the F-35 Lightning II visited Australian shores for the first time at AVALON 2017,  the MBDA Advanced Short Range Air-to-Air Missile (ASRAAM) in service with the RAAF has been successfully fired from the  aircraft.

The trials are the first time the missile, that uses software developed in close collaboration with Australia, has been fired from F-35, and the first time any non-US missile has been fired from the aircraft.

Conducted from both Naval Air Station Patuxent River and Edwards Air Force Base in the USA, the effort has seen both flight trials and air-launched firings of the ASRAAM successfully take place.

MBDA is currently under contract, awarded in 2016, to produce the highly capable infra-red (IR) guided air-to-air missile for the UK’s F-35s. ASRAAM’s large rocket motor and clean aerodynamic design gives it a high kinematic capability that delivers superior end-game performance compared with other countries’ in-service IR missiles.

The trials were conducted by the integrated test teams at Patuxent and Edwards, which include Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, MBDA and Northrop Grumman.

The development trials work is being conducted under the integration programme for ASRAAM onto the UK’s F-35 aircraft. This effort is currently progressing to plan and these integration activities will allow the Initial Operating Capability of the aircraft by the UK.

ASRAAM entered service with the Royal Australian Air Force on the F/A-18A/B Hornet over a decade ago and will continue to serve until the aircraft goes out of service.

MBDA is also under contract for the ASRAAM Capability Sustainment Programme (CSP) to build replenishment missiles for the Royal Air Force’s Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft. The CSP effort makes use of ASRAAM’s commonality with the CAMM missile family, also being bought by the Royal Navy and British Army, to deliver extensive cost savings across the UK Armed Forces.