Douglas Barrie/LONDON
ISRAEL AIRCRAFT Industries (IAI) and French missile manufacturer Matra have held detailed discussions about IAI offering the latter's active radar-guided Mica medium-range air-to-air missile as part of fighter upgrades.
Officials of the Israeli company confirm that talks have been held, aimed at offering the radar-guided variant of the Mica as part of potential upgrades for the IAI Kfir and the Mikoyan MiG-21 Fish-bed.
It could also figure as part of the IAI bid to provide an upgrade package for the Indian air force's British Aerospace Sea Harrier FRS51.
The IAI official confirms that the company will also offer the Rafael beyond-visual-range (BVR) active-radar-guided missile now in development. He says, however, that the Israeli defence ministry is likely to control the export of this weapon tightly, hence IAI's interest in the Mica. Rafael declines to discuss this project.
IAI's Kfir, MiG-21 and Northrop Grumman F-5 upgrade include Elta El-2032 multi-mode radars. Even on the F-5, with an extremely limited antenna diameter, the look down mode will pick up a target with a radar cross section (RCS) of 2.5m2. By comparison, a MiG-21 is thought to have an RCS of 3m2.
Along with a BVR weapon, IAI is offering the short-range Rafael Python-4. By comparison with the Python-3, the missile has double the off-bore-sight engagement capability. The Python-3 has an off-bore-sight look angle of up to 30° while that of the Python-4 is in excess of 60°.
Source: Flight International
