Texas works on HARM upgrade

TEXAS INSTRUMENTS IS considering developing its ASQ-213 high-speed anti-radiation missile (HARM) targeting pod, to meet performance requirements originally intended to be met by the now-cancelled McDonnell Douglas precision direction-finding system.

The company has completed a $3 million study into such a project, and hopes to test an upgraded ASQ-213 pod, if funding is available in the fiscal year 1997 budget.

Texas Instruments is also continuing to deliver HARM modification kits to the US Air Force to bring the missile up to the AGM-88C standard. This standard features a new warhead and upgraded guidance system. A tungsten, rather than steel, fragmentation warhead is used on the C-model missile.

The AGM-88C has not been cleared for export, remaining an US-forces-only missile. Texas Instruments is also working on further improvements to the HARM, including a major software upgrade, which is due to be completed by the end of 1999.

Source: Flight International