May 15, 200619 yr From Jane's Defence Weekly Meteor fired for the first time Robert Hewson Editor, Jane's Air-Launched Weapons London Europe's Meteor Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air Missile (BVRAAM) programme has taken a major step forward with the launch of the first test missile on 9 May, Jane's has learned. The first Meteor was fired from a Saab JAS 39 Gripen multirole fighter aircraft over the RFN Test Range at Vidsel, northern Sweden. The launch in May was the first time that the Meteor's propulsion system had been fully tested under real-world conditions. The firing was intended to verify the missile's ability to transition from rocket-boosted to ramjet-powered flight. The Meteor is powered by a solid-fuel throttleable ducted ramjet motor,developed by Germany's Bayern-Chemie. The missile is designed to sustain a speed of M4.0 over its 100+ km engagement range.
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