I LOL’d.
The Russians have made feints at making something similar to Meteor and there’s also some kind of successor to the R-37 I believe. Whether and when these make it onto a 5th gen aircraft is open to debate. The real problem is that against 5th generation aircraft carrying a Meteor-like weapon, a 4th gen aircraft will be killed before it can locate the aggressor, regardless of the AAM it carries. Meteor works for 5th gen launch platforms even better than 4th gen because it increases Pk from outside likely IRST detection ranges.
They don’t use stato. A big missile with a high specific impulse.
Jõ presented a small design of a missile seeker (radar) with a small aesa mounted on a swivel. Given what we could see on the pictures of the design I made the hypo that it was a fast swiveling design and came to a modus of operendi for that concept.
As I have written before, time will be critical against a pair opponent at the stealth age of fighters (we still have not entered that era in A2A). The info you’ll get will be obsolete at an even faster tempo and not entierly accurate making the in-flight update at long range of a costly missile dubious in term of general efficiency.
If you plan to face a 4th+ gen force then it’s all about 80’s concept. The Meteor still makes some sense if its seeker is updated. This is why Japan looks for that “upgrade” having to face China and non strategic Russian force (The only thing Ru might do in the scenario I see is to play the nuisance role as a support for eco gains).
So otherwise who would need a Meteor to face a 4th+ gen fighter force (yes what you will read bellow is an OT digression ?
– Korea ? No. Amraam is still enough for the task and nobody want to introduce a new expensive and delicate missile that is not critical
– South America ? Perhaps. Depends of the local arm race (hence my plea for anti-nuisance force on Geopolitical level)
– Africa ? No needs but can change in 10 years
– Europe ? No. Stealth has alrdy hit the fan. The Met is obsolete in term of concept
– Indo/PAkistan ? Perhaps. But if we consider the futur of the PakFA in India, there is hence no needs
– Anti-US force ? Probably that a large airforce equipped with 4th+ gen fighters will try to play the game of attrition that way.
– SE Asia and southern Pacific ? Yes – definitively .The Meteor can be there what the 30 Mkk was: a cheap game changer.
So to conclude, except on the Grip and with a “lowcost” Typhoon, I don’t see why you shld have the Meteor (the push by some in the Fr industry to add the Met to the Raf* inventory is simply ridiculous IMOHO)
*The Rafale being alrdy equipped with the MICA that shld be upgraded toward a slight increaseof range
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