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By: - 3rd May 2003 at 00:27 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
For clarification, the launch aircraft is at Mach 3 and 80K feet, the target at Mach 0.8 and 30K feet.
By: - 3rd May 2003 at 04:14 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
...
The problem is that we don't know if that "anticipated" performance is the "actual" final spec of the AMRAAM.
By: - 3rd May 2003 at 05:48 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Should be pretty close to the performance of at least the AIM-120 A models I'd believe.
By: - 3rd May 2003 at 18:40 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Interesting. Official documents usually refer to the official weapon title, AIM 120 - as AMRAAM is not an official description, or a least not usually used. This doc might be refering to a proposed AMRAAM using only a theoretical range estimate to highlight the Mach 3 advantage of the SR 71, hence the downgrading of secrecy.
By: - 4th May 2003 at 04:32 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Well, the document is from 1981, so AIM-120 may not have been decided on as the designation yet. Also, it was a Lockheed document submitted in response to a USAF question, so they may have used AMRAAM just because.
By: - 4th May 2003 at 10:11 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Names like AMRAAM are often used in official documents, especially prior to official acceptance by the service as either project or system.
The JSF project was referred to as JSF well before the X-32 and X-34 designations were out. A lot had been written about the TF-X before it became the F-111. And although the YF-22 and YF-23 were part of the often-renamed ADF program (Air Dominance Fighter), this program with sketches/requirements/proposals/estimates was already often mentioned throughout the 1980s well before the fighter designators were issued.
So i agree with Sean that it is an interesting and probably genuine graphic, but without context i find it hard to say something sensible about it. It could deal with a proposal, a requirement, a designed capability, or even a spin to sell the project. It gives a range indication of the AMRAAM as it was planned to be when launched from an 'FSR-71', but from where i'm sitting i can't tell if this has any relationship with the AIM-120 AMRAAMs which have prevented wing flutter on F-16s over the last decade. Especially since the document precedes the AIM-120s in service date by a decade.
By: - 5th May 2003 at 01:44 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Originally posted by Arthur
So i agree with Sean that it is an interesting and probably genuine graphic, but without context i find it hard to say something sensible about it. It could deal with a proposal, a requirement, a designed capability, or even a spin to sell the project. It gives a range indication of the AMRAAM as it was planned to be when launched from an 'FSR-71', but from where i'm sitting i can't tell if this has any relationship with the AIM-120 AMRAAMs which have prevented wing flutter on F-16s over the last decade. Especially since the document precedes the AIM-120s in service date by a decade.
The image came from a document I have (the whole document, by the way) regarding the use of an SR-71 as an interceptor platform designed to take down MAINSTAY aircraft ahead of a wave of bombers in the event of a war with the Soviet Union. This is actually the second proposal, I also have the first proposal which was intended to use the AIM-54/AWG-9 combo from the F-14. Also have a document regarding the use of the SR-71 as a bomber using the AGM-69. These would have had a 300 mile range if I remember right, and Kelly Johnson comments on how their accuracy could be greatly improved using new guidance techniques rather than the standard inertial guidance on the AGM-69. All three were declassified by the SENIOR CROWN office (the SR-71 program office) and are definitely genuine. Got them via a source I used to prepare a history thesis project on the OXCART program. I have all three of them scanned on my computer, but it would take a massive effort to crop and post all of them here. All of them have a massive amount of information that in some cases probably shouldn't have been declassified for release, but I'm not arguing :D
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By: SOC - 3rd May 2003 at 00:25
Check this out, page three from a declassified report on the SR-71 interceptor proposal from the early 1980's. I got this and the previous report a few months ago, GREAT stuff. What is interesting is that this (inadvertently?) gives AIM-120 range data, can anyone extrapolate the data and come up with a more realistic range estimate?