Douglas Barrie/LONDON Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC
The USA, Germany and Italy have begun to explore the joint development of a next-generation anti-radiation missile, with negotiations on a memorandum of agreement (MoA) expected to get under way within the next few months.
The three countries are already collaborating on the precision navigation update (PNU) programme for the Raytheon AGM-88 High-speed Anti-Radar Missile.
Programme sources say that, within the PNU programme, there is an as yet undefined technology assessment and evaluation (TEA) phase which is intended to provide a route for the three countries to jointly examine technology applicable to future suppression of enemy air defence/strike weapons.
The TEA phase would run concurrently with the PNU, but would be covered by a separate trinational MoA. The PNU MoA has been signed, and the companies are understood to be in precontract discussions.
National level research projects are already under way in the USA and Germany. The latter is providing limited funding for Germany's BGT Armiger rocket/ramjet powered anti-radiation missile. "BGT is open to co-operative anti-radiation missile programmes," noted programme manager Klaus-Eberhard Möller at the recent SMI Missiles 98 conference in London.
In the USA, Raytheon is working on its Advanced Strike Weapon, while Science and Advanced Technologies and Atlantic Research are proposing the Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile.
All three designs use rocket/ ramjet propulsion coupled with a dual-mode seeker. The latter covers a broad-band passive radar sensor coupled with either a millimetre-wave radar or an imaging infrared sensor.
BGT carried out captive carry trials of its ARAS dual-mode seeker in 1997, with additional trials also planned for 1998. If adequate funding is made available then a flight demonstration could be carried out as soon as 2001.
Source: Flight International
