From Aviation Week

 

[excerpt]

 

Delivery Nears For MBDA's New Missile

By Robert Hewson

July 10, 2012

 

Long shrouded in official secrecy, the MBDA Meteor is now here. Development testing is complete, and customers are getting ready to take delivery of this game-changing missile.

I'm from the start very doubtious about the Meteor program, as in the F-35 case.

This article says almost nothing, words, words, words and triumphalist words, and very difuse integration schedules, I fear the worst possible case.

As examples:

For Europe’s fighters it promises a capability without peer in air-to-air combat. MBDA’s Meteor beyond visual range air-to-air missile (BVRAAM) could become the discriminator in 21st-century air warfare, with the world divided between those who have it and those who do not.

One contractual item still to be resolved is a full integration plan for the Eurofighter Typhoon. The UK is the Meteor program lead and the Typhoon was supposed to be the first aircraft equipped with the new missile. The UK has an ambition to be operational with Meteor in 2015, but that requires a level of integration work that is not yet under way.

Says Bradford, “At the moment, we have an enabling contract, in advance of the main integration program, which is de-risking that program(underline mine).” If that main contract is signed, then the Typhoon will gain Meteor capability around 2015-16, says MBDA

 

Also, is clearly a long delayed program, from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MBDA_Meteor

By 1998 the in-service date (ISD), defined as the first unit equipped with 72 missiles, had slipped to 2007

Will be his performances so superior when it enters in service with at least that delay? I think the Wiki entry explaining his tortuous development is worth of reading.

Will be his performances so superior when it enters in service with at least that delay? I think the Wiki entry explaining his tortuous development is worth of reading.

 

Tortuous development is the rule, don't ya know!

My thought is that the original variant won't offer much, if anything, beyond the current AMRAAM models but that future variants of Meteor will take the ramjet propulsion and make a very pleasant longer range AAM. Decent now and great in the future?

My thought is that the original variant won't offer much, if anything, beyond the current AMRAAM models but that future variants of Meteor will take the ramjet propulsion and make a very pleasant longer range AAM. Decent now and great in the future?

 

I haven't found much about the 4A seeker or its algorithms, but this part might offer an advantage over AMRAAM:

 

Unmatched by other missiles, the Propulsion System, developed by Bayern Chemie (a subisidiary of MBDA Germany) gives Meteor the ability to manoeuvre under power, even at the extreme ranges that it achieves while maintaining very high speeds.

 

From another, upbeat news release.