By Kris Osborn, Warrior
(Washington DC) The US Marine Corps is upgrading its F-35B aircraft with the UK’s Meteor air-launched weapon, an advanced and extremely effective weapon capable of generating the most extensive No Escape Zone among any air-to-air missile. The move represents new generations of international, allied weapons-integration collaboration, as the Meteor weapon is currently in service with the UK, Germany, Italy, France, Sweden and Spain. The weapon has been integrated into the Eurofighter Typhoon, Rafale and Gripen and is now integrating into the F-35A and B variants and the KF-21, according to an interesting essay from the aviationgeekclub.com.
The Meteor’s combat advantages are well established, the essay explains
“Meteor’s ‘ramjet’motor provides continuous thrust up to the point of target interception, generating the most extensive No Escape Zone among any air-to-air missile system, significantly surpassing current MRAAMs. Its fragmentation warhead ensures maximum lethality, further enhancing its combat effectiveness together with its unparalleled endgame kinematics,” the essay says.
The publication reports that the Meteor was seen flying test-flights on a Marine Corps F-35B at Pax River Naval Air Station, a development which would suggest US-UK collaborative weapons integration efforts. Integrating the Meteor onto an F-35 likely contained some technical adaptations or interface and fire control adjustments to ensure seamless functionality with the F-35. The Meteor’s “No Escape Zone” is heralded as a Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air missile, something which makes it much more difficult for an imperiled fighter jet to simply disengage or “fly away” from an air combat engagement without being hit.
Year ago, a British Typhoon Eurofighter pilot told Warrior Maven that the Meteor significantly increases what pilots refer to as this “no-escape range” – the distance or point at which an air-to-air adversary cannot fly away from or “escape” an approaching missile. This means that fighter jets attacking with the Meteor are more lethal and can attack at more extended ranges with a higher probability of achieving a successful “hit” on an enemy fighter.
Expanding F-35 weapons envelope
With software upgrades, the F-35 has for years been capable of integrating a host of new weapons as they emerge, so it would therefore make sense for the Corps’ to further expand its F-35B arsenal. Incremental software drops have progressively allowed the F-35 variants to add a new generation of weapons, such as the Stormbreaker, an air-dropped weapon capable of tracking and destroying enemy targets at ranges out to 40-nautical miles. Raytheon’s Stormbreaker is also well-known for its tri-mode seeker, offering RF, laser and millimeter wave targeting to add attack options and all weather capability.
More British Weapons?
British and European fighter jets actually operate with a range of highly capable weapons which, along with the Meteor, could potentially be integrated into US F-35s to expand lethality and give pilots a greater range of attack options.
The Typhoon has also been armed with another European missile referred to as the Storm Shadow, a highly lethal air-launched missile used to destroy Saddam Hussein’s bunkers at the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. Known for its accuracy, the Storm Shadow can achieve precision targeting and fire two missiles through the same hole in an enemy bunker target. The weapon used a special double charge explosive effect, called a BROACH warhead, which includes an initial penetrating blast followed by a controlled detonation of the main warhead using a variable delay fuze.
The Storm Shadow, also on the Royal Air Force’s Tornado aircraft, is built with a stealthy external configuration, multi-mode GPS and inertial navigation precision guidance system, and something called terrain reference technology terrain reference technology, Paul Smith, former UK Royal Air Force pilot, Typhoon operational test pilot, and Fighter Weapons School Instructor, told Warrior at Farnborough UK as far back as 2014.
The Typhoon enhancements have also included the addition of a short-range stand-off missile called Brimstone II. This precision-guided weapon has also been in service on the British Tornado aircraft. Originally designed as a tank-killer weapon, Brimstone II is engineered with an all-weather, highly precise millimeter wave seeker. In Afghanistan many years ago, a Brimstone was used to destroy an Al Qaeda terrorist on a motorcycle traveling at 60km per hour.
Kris Osborn is President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a highly qualified expert in 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
