MBDA Meteor
Meteor is an active radar guided beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile (BVRAAM) being developed by MBDA. Meteor will offer a multi-shot capability against long range manoeuvring targets in a heavy electronic countermeasures (ECM) environment.
It is intended to equip the Eurofighter Typhoons of the United Kingdom Royal Air Force (RAF), Germany's Luftwaffe, Spain's Ejército del Aire and Italy's Aeronautica Militare Italiana, British and Italian F-35s, French Dassault Rafale, and the Saab JAS 39 Gripen of Sweden's Flygvapnet.
It is scheduled to enter service for the first time with the RAF in 2015 and with the Swedish Air Force as early as 2013, making the SwAF the first operator of the missile. According to MBDA, Meteor has three to six times the kinematic performance of current air-air missiles of its type. The key to Meteor's performance is a throttleable ducted rocket (ramjet) manufactured by Bayern-Chemie of Germany.
Famous quotes containing the word meteor:
“The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid-air stands still.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)