Rafael and Lockheed Martin have secured contracts from the Australian, Israeli and US air forces to supply improved Popeye AGM-142 air-to-ground missiles. The three contracts are worth $136 million in total, although they could reach $220 million if options are firmed up on further missiles.

Some of the missiles for the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) will be armed with blast fragmentation warheads, while the remainder will have penetration warheads.

The RAAF has selected an advanced variant of the Popeye. Under a product enhancement programme known as PEP-3, it will be fitted with an 8-12 micron thermal imaging seeker that has selectable wide and narrow field of view (FoV) modes. The wide FoV is used to acquire the target and the narrow FoV for the terminal phase.

South Korea has also selected the Popeye, but a contract has yet to be signed.

Source: Flight International