US / ALLIED AIM-120B

This is a unit of the Department Of Defense - United States of America (USA)
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AIM-120B AMRAAM

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General Info:
Origin = U.S.A. Type = BVR Missile
Manufacture = Hughes
IOC = 1991
Guidance = Inertial with mid-course updates; active radar terminal phase
Sensor Type = Active radar
Sensor Range = 8nm
Intercept = Lead pursuit
Platforms = F-14D, F-15, F-16, F/A-18, EF-2000, and Tornado ADV.

Performance:
Range = 40nm (max. 75nm)
Speed = Mach 4
Fuel = 117.3lbs
Lethal Radius = 40ft


Dimensions:
Length = 12ft
Diameter = 7in
Fin Span = 25in
Weight = 345lbs

Radar:
Range = 9nm
Sweep rate = 11 deg/sec
Beam width = 4 deg
Max scan angle = 54 deg
Sensor Range = 8nm

Warhead:
45lbs High explosive
Fuse = Variable


The AIM-120 AMRAAM was developed in the 1980s to replace the AIM-7 Sparrow. One of the chief disadvantages of the Sparrow missile was that the launching fighter had to maintain a radar lock on the target for the entire flight of the missile. Besides giving the target plenty of opportunity to defeat the missile by breaking the radar lock, it also left the shooter vulnerable to counterattack since his maneuvers were constrained while he maintained a lock on a single bandit. In addition, a SARH missile needs a fairly strong radar return to guide on, which is guaranteed to give away an attack on any Radar Warning Receiver- (RWR) equipped target. Part of the solution to this problem was to put an entire radar set into the missile itself, but since the range of any radar is limited by the size of its antenna, simply using the missile's own radar would diminish the potential range considerably. These problems were solved in the AMRAAM by both putting a miniature active radar into the missile nose for use in the missile's terminal phase, and also using a datalink from the launching fighter's Fire Control Radar (FCR) to provide mid- flight course corrections. Furthermore, the shooter doesn't need to continually paint the target with his radar to fire the AMRAAM, but can be in a more stealthy Track While Scanning (TWS) mode.

The differences between the Aim-120B and Aim-120C are as follows:
The wings are now clipped with allows for carriage of the Aim-120C in weapons bays for aircraft such as the F/A-22 Raptor and the JSF.
The Guidance was upgraded to the WGU-44/B standard and the warhead was improved to the WDU- 41/B warhead.
The engine was switched from a sustain/boost to a pure boost design. While it does cause the missile to loose some of it's range, it allows the missile to get out onto it's target quicker as the missile accelerates quicker than the previous versions that used the boost/sustain engine.
 
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