Brazil just bought 200 Meteor for about 200 millions.

Good news for MBDA and Meteor.

Rumored to be based on the FC-31 but is enlarged and carrier (catapult) ready. Whether the difference is going to be like the F-35A v F-35C is unknown. It may look completely different. Nobody outside knows what it looks like or when a 1st flight might take place.

Thanks for the added info QuantumFX.

For the moment, J-10C is still in production (100+ units?). There has been a rumor of a new J-10D but beyond that, there is nothig. So no word of its successor. No indication the PLAAF wants an FC-31 variant either. Wonder what the PLAAF planning.

I can understand why the Chinese don’t want the FC-31 variant, it lost out to the J-20. I don’t know why Shenyang keep on trying to force the FC-31 onto the PLAAF.

£790k in 2011.

I never new that Storm Shadow cost £790,000 back in 2011. I remember seeing Storm Shadow in mock-up form at the now defunct RAF Leuchars airshow sometime in the early 2000’s.

Thanks for the info St. John.

SPEAR 3 is looking at 140km.
https://world.eurofighter.com/articl…almighty-punch

Spray a bit of jamming on the radar, launch 8 and then wait for impact.

I would have wondered why the SPEAR 3 was not designed with Stealth from the start, considering that mbda systems have designed and built Storm Shadow.

It was only a matter of time before the US designed a counter to Putin’s invincible missile. Look’s like we are headed for Star Wars 2.

Right and it is also directly linked to the mission need which dictates inventory and then ultimately gets to affordability. You want a weapon that can be stocked in peacetime to sustain the type of targets that you have designed it against for many wartime scenarios. So if want an inventory of a few thousand then you attribute different targets and have a different price points vs if you need to acquire it in the tens of thousands. This is the same reason why the SDB-I continues to be produced at its peak production rate (7000+ munitions in FY19) despite the SDB-II now entering LRIP and being ordered in the 4 digits.

I am actually surprised that the RAF never bought the SDB 2 to compliment the Brimstone and SPEAR 3 missiles for the Typhoon.

One thing I do not like about this new drone is the fact that it has a round engine nozzle, it cannot help with all aspect stealth. Compared with the X-47 which has a flat nozzle.