Jane Edwards
A Raytheon Technologies business and the U.S. Air Force fired an updated Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile, dubbed AIM-120D3, from an F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet against an aerial target at long range during a live-fire test held on June 30.
The AIM-120D3 missile developed under the AMRAAM Form, Fit, Function Refresh program combines F3R hardware with System Improvement 3F software updates, Raytheon Missiles & Defense said Monday.
“F3R upgrades multiple circuit cards to address obsolescence, enhances the weapon’s capabilities, and extends the production line for the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Navy, and our Allied partners,” said Paul Ferraro, president of air power at Raytheon Missiles & Defense.
Raytheon engineers applied model-based systems engineering and other digital technologies to update circuit cards and hardware in the missile’s guidance section.
The AIM-120D3 live-fire event is the first of five planned missile tests meant to qualify the missile for production and deployment.
The service and Raytheon will conduct the live-fire test of the AIM-120C8 foreign military sales missile variant in the near future.
