The Royal Australian Air Force is exploring the carriage of medium range stand-off missiles on board upgraded Boeing F/A-18 fighters as part of revised plans for developing its strike capability under the newly created Project Air 5418.
The RAAF has also reiterated its desire for a family of missiles to meet the requirement, but is not ruling out the option of adopting a solution based around a number of separate missile types.
A bidders' conference held at the Point Cook Air Force Base on 18 February was told that the final direction taken will be determined by the demonstration of benefits to be gained from either approach.
The revised stand-off weapon project, formerly part of Project Air 5398, is to see the release of a Request for Proposals in April with responses due by June.
The RAAF intends to have the new stand-off weapon capability in service by 2005. Funding approvals for acquisition are planned for inclusion in the 2001 Australian defence budget.
The Air 5418 requirement calls for an anti-radar, but not necessarily anti-radiation, seeker-equipped weapon; an area denial weapon for use against airfields and exposed infantry; and a littoral areas weapon for use against maritime and land targets.
The anti-radar weapon would be carried by RAAF F-111 strike and AP-3C maritime patrol aircraft. It would be carried by F-111s but may also be fitted to Lockheed Martin AP-3Cs, while the littoral weapon would be fitted primarily to AP-3Cs. RAAF officials at the conference said that integration onto the F/A-18 was also needed.
The RAAF has previously restricted the F/A-18 to air superiority combat roles, with long range strike roles being handled by theF-111. The bidders' conference was told that the maximum weapon weight was 2370lbs, representing the highest allowable loading of an AP-3C weapons station.
Raytheon announced it will compete the revised project with a powered version of the Joint Stand Off Weapon (JSOW) to fulfil the area and littoral requirements, while HARM Block 6, modified to support a new GPS/INS navigation suite, will be offered for the anti-radar mission.
Lockheed Martin is exploring offering JASSM (Joint Air-to-Surface Stand-off Missile), being developed for the US Air Force and Navy while Rafael of Israel is expected to offer an advanced variant of the AGM-142.
Rafael officials said, however, that they were holding talks with a number of other possible contenders about the option of presenting a joint bid which integrated AGM-142 components into other missile airframes. Possible options for co-operation include the AGM-142 data link pod, weapon data link and television seeker heads.
Plans by the Taurus LFK-led consortium to compete the project with a modified KEPD 150 missile have been overhauled in favour of a bid for all three requirements based wholly around KEPD 350 variants. Germany's DaimlerChrysler Aerospace (Dasa), parent company of LFK, said that the area weapon variant may include a nose-mounted laser target designator for use with the SMARrt-SEAD sensor-fused submunition.
Boeing confirmed plans to offer the SLAM-ER (Stand-off Land Attack Missile - Extended Range) missile. Outside of the littoral mission, the WDU-40/B warhead would be replaced with a submunitions dispenser. British Aerospace is looking to a bid based on Storm Shadow incorporating the Royal Ordnance Broach warhead.
Source: Flight International
