By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization
Ukrainian F-16s are being armed with highly-capable, beyond-line-of-sight precision air-to-air missiles likely to massive expand the Ukrainian Air Force’s ability to target, track and destroy Russian aircraft and air defenses.
A critical advantage associated with the arrival of the AIM-120Ds may be related to range, as the weapon is described as a “beyond-visual-range” Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) designed for all weather conditions. It used active transmit radar guidance, according to Raytheon data, an might enable Ukrainian F-16s to destroy Russian jets or air defenses from safe stand-off ranges.
Perhaps of greatest interest is the question as to which variant the Ukrainians are receiving, because in recent years the US Air Force and Raytheon have extensively upgraded the AIM 120-D. The newest variants of the AIM-120D have a greater attack range, GPS precision navigation, intertial measurement guidance and a two-way data link, according to Raytheon data.
News of the arrival of AIM-120D reportedly came from Ukrainian officials cited in Air and Space Force Magazine.
The particular configuration of “export” variants of weapons systems are often not available for security reasons, yet it certainly seems conceivable that the AIM 120-D being sent to Ukraine is a modern variant. This would seem likely given that Raytheon has received a production deal from the Pentagon to build new AIM 120-Ds for Ukraine, per the specific contract mechanisms DoD put in place to support Ukraine over the long term.
The arrival of these weapons is tactically quite significant, as they could greatly expand Ukraine’s ability to compete for air dominance. Should Ukrainian F-16s be capable of targeting and destroying Russian aircraft with greater precision and at greater stand-off ranges, they might push the air supremacy stalemate into their favor. Ukrainian F-16s might still be vulnerable to Russian S-300 and S-400 air defenses which could complicate efforts to provide air support to advancing Ukrainian forces, however the AIM-120D can also attack as an air-to-ground weapon. This could mean Ukrainian F-16s might have an ability to target and destroy Russian air defenses should the targeting range, precision and ability to hit moving targets be sufficient on the AIM-120D.
AIM 120D upgrades have been implemented and integrated into fighter jets in recent years as part of a massive, fleet-wide software-driven weapons upgrade for US F-22s called 3.2b. Upgrades to the AIM 120-D were made and successfully integrated into existing F-22s in recent years, a development which suggests more capable variants of the AIM-120D might be available.
Following the 3.2b upgrades for F-22s in the last several years, Raytheon has further extended its upgrades of the weapon into 2023 to include another software driven enhancement enabled through a Functional Configuration Audit creating a new AIM-120D-3 variant.
“The AIM-120D-3 features modernized hardware, including 15 upgraded circuit cards developed with model-based systems engineering initiatives under the Form, Fit, Function Refresh program, and uses the latest System Improvement Program-3F software,” a Raytheon essay explains.
Another area of possible AIM-120D in addition to targeting and guidance may be in the realm of guidance “hardening,” meaning efforts to better secure the AIM-120Ds guidance system against enemy “jamming efforts or EW attacks. One way this can be accomplished is through a technique called frequency “hopping,” a technology enabling guidance or flight trajectory to “hop” or “switch” from one frequency to another to avoid being disabled by enemy “jamming” and continue on to its target. It is of course not clear which kinds of technologies Ukrainian AIM-120Ds will operate with, as that is likely not available for security reasons.
Kris Osborn is the Military Affairs Editor of 19FortyFive and President of Warrior Maven- Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.
