The UK Royal Air Force will declare MBDA's Brimstone air-launched anti-armour weapon an in-service asset late this month, following the successful completion early this year of integration and firing trials with the service's Panavia Tornado GR4 strike aircraft.
Acceptance of the millimetric wave radar-guided missile will come around 42 months behind the schedule agreed when the UK Ministry of Defence signed a development and production contract for the Brimstone system in November 1996, worth about £940 million ($1.8 billion).
Expected to achieve initial operational capability with GR4-equipped 31 Sqn at RAF Marham on 31 March, the more than 10km (5.4nm) range Brimstone will expand the UK's inventory of precision-guided weapons, which already comprises the Raytheon Paveway II/III, Enhanced Paveway, AGM-65 Maverick and MBDA Storm Shadow cruise missile. The new, autonomous weapon will be launched over a target area to search for and attack armoured vehicles and other battlefield threats.
Each GR4 will be capable of carrying a maximum load of 12 Brimstone missiles beneath its fuselage, with three each to be carried on four rail launchers. The weapon is also being integrated with the RAF's upgraded BAE Systems Harrier GR9 for use from around March 2008, and will subsequently be fielded by both the Eurofighter Typhoon and the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
Service acceptance follows a successful series of development firings of telemetry-equipped missiles at the China Lake weapons range in California early this year, which included single and salvo firings against armoured targets. "The missile performed exactly as it should," says Brimstone Integrated Project Team Leader Wg Cdr Angela Hawley.
CRAIG HOYLE LONDON
Source: Flight International
