Eurofighter Typhoon Launches AMRAAM and ASRAAM

Italy's DA7 prototype of the Eurofighter Typhoon is flying daily at Le Bourget, having recently completed initial trial launches with Raytheon's AIM-120 medium-range radar-guided air-to-air missile (AMRAAM), and BAE Systems' short-range AAM (SRAAM).

On May 17, Alenia Aerospazio military aircraft chief test pilot Cmdr Maurizio Cheli took off from Decimomannu air base in Sardinia on DA7's 217th flight, for the first AMRAAM launch from a Typhoon. This was with a powered S/CTV (separation/control test vehicle) version of AMRAAM, with an inert warhead, launched at 3,310 feet and Mach 0.9.

DA7's development program also included the first launch of an operational although inert and instrumented ASRAAM on June 1. It was then flown by Alenia Eurofighter test-pilot Cmdr Marco Venanzetti, who released the missile at 5,000 feet and Mach 0.89.

By John Fricker