British Aerospace Skyflash

The British Aerospace Skyflash was a medium-range semi-active radar homing air-to-air missile derived from the US AIM-7 Sparrow missile and carried by Royal Air Force F4 Phantoms and Tornado F3s, Italian Air force and Royal Saudi Air Force Tornados and Royal Swedish Air Force Viggens. The missile is being replaced by the more capable AMRAAM. The AMRAAM itself will probably be replaced by the MBDA Meteor.

History

Skyflash came out of British plan to develop an inverse monopulse seeker for the Sparrow AIM-7E-2 by GEC and the RAE at the end of the 1960s. Having shown this was feasible Air Staff Requirement 1219 was issued in January 1973. The project code was XJ.521. The contractors were Hawker Siddeley and Marconi Space and Defence Systems (the remaned GEC guided weapons division). Major changes from the Sparrow were the addition of a Marconi inverse monopulse radar seeker, improved electronics, adapted control surfaces and a Thorn EMI active radar fuze. The engine was the Bristol Aerojet Hoopoe. Tests of the resulting missile showed it could function successfully in hostile Electronic Countermeasures (ECM) environments and could engage targets under a wide variety of conditions. It could be launched from as low as 100 m to attack a high-altitude target or launched at high level to engage a target flying as low as 75 m. The missile entered service on the F-4 Phantom II in 1978.

In 1985, these aircraft were replaced with the Panavia Tornado ADV. Both the Phantom and the ADV carry the Skyflash in semi-recessed wells on the aircraft's underbelly to reduce drag. In the ADV, however, Frazer-Nash hydraulic trapezes project the missile out into the slipstream prior to motor ignition. This widens the missile's firing envelope by ensuring that the launch is not affected by turbulence from the fuselage. In RAF service the missiles are usually carried in conjunction with four short range air-to-air missiles, either AIM-9 Sidewinders or ASRAAMs. A version with an active radar seeker, Skyflash Mk 2 (called Active Skyflash), was proposed for both the RAF and Sweden but not developed.

In 1996 the RAF announced the launch of the Capability Sustainment Programme which called for, among other things, the replacement of the Skyflash with AIM-120 AMRAAM. AMRAAM incorporates an active seeker with a strapdown inertial reference unit and computer system, giving it fire-and-forget capability.

Characteristics

*Primary function: Medium-range air-to-air missile
*Main Contractor: BAe Dynamics, with Raytheon as subcontractor
*Unit cost:
*Power Plant: Rocketdyne solid propellant rocket motor
*Length: 3.68 m (12 ft 1 in)
*Weight: 193 kg (425 lb)
*Diameter: 0.203 m (8 in)
*Wing span: 1.02 m (40 in)
*Range: 45 km (28 mi)
*Speed: Mach 4
*Guidance system: Marconi inverse monopulse semi-active radar homing
*Warheads: High explosive fragmentation with proximity fuse
*Warhead weight: 39.5 kg (87 lb)
*Users: UK (Royal Air Force), Saudi Arabia (Royal Saudi Air Force), Italy (on leased Tornado F3s), Sweden (Royal Swedish Air Force).
*Date deployed: 1978
*Date retired: Being replaced with AMRAAM on Tornado fleet

Operators

; ITA
* Italian Air Force; SAU
* Royal Saudi Air Force; SWE
* Royal Swedish Air force; UK
* Royal Air Force

ee also