ATK delivers second AARGM test bed aircraft

Alliant Techsystems, the US Navy, the Italian Air Force, and Vitrociset S.p.A, have fielded a second Beechcraft King Air test aircraft supporting development and testing of the Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile (AARGM). The test bed aircraft was developed for the Italian Air Force as part of the AARGM System Development and Demonstration (SD&D), a cooperative development programme between the U. S. Navy and Italian Air Force. The aircraft and its integrated AARGM guidance section will be delivered to Italy to conduct tests on Italian ranges.

This second AARGM test aircraft is identical to the first King Air test aircraft which has been operating on US ranges over the past few years. Each aircraft has a modified nose assembly carrying the AARGM guidance section to support airborne testing of the sophisticated sensor suite. AARGM sensors include an advanced digital, anti-radiation homing (ARH) receiver for passive detection, tracking, and location of threat emitter systems and an active millimeter wave (MMW) radar for terminal guidance. The test aircraft carries a wide array of avionics and data recording equipment. A crew consisting of a pilot and up-to-four test engineers monitor and evaluate system performance real time during airborne test profiles.

"The first Beech King Air flight testing is an essential element of our AARGM test programme and has been critical to our program's success to-date," said Gordon Turner, ATK's Strike Weapons Director. "As we complete the developmental and operational testing, this second test aircraft will fulfill a critical role in our overall system evaluation and will specifically support sensor characterisation against a wide array of air defense targets.

When the aircraft is delivered to Italy, it will begin testing against threat-representative targets located on an Italian Test Range in Sardinia. Under the AARGM cooperative development, a number of threat representative systems have been developed and deployed to the Sardinia Test Range. The planned testing allows for optimisation of sensor performance in various clutter environments and characterisation of target signatures to improve the fidelity of the MMW seeker database.

AARGM is in the final year of a 5-year System Development and Demonstration (SD&D) phase. The programme is on track for a Milestone C decision later this fiscal year and entry into Low Rate Initial Production. In addition to these King Air test flights, the programme has conducted extensive lab and field testing, multiple F/A-18C/D Captive Carriage tests, seven successful advanced concept technology demonstrations (ACTD) launches, and two direct-hit developmental test firings.

AARGM is a supersonic, air-launched tactical missile that will be integrated on the F/A-18 C/D, F/A-18 E/F, EA-18G and Tornado IDS/ECR aircraft. The missile is also being designed to be compatible with the F-35, EA-6B and US and Allied F-16 aircraft. Its advanced multi-sensor system, including a Millimeter Wave (MMW) terminal seeker, advanced digital Anti-Radiation Homing (ARH) receiver and a GPS/INS, is capable of rapidly engaging traditional and advanced enemy air defense targets as well as non-radar time-sensitive strike targets. The AARGM MMW seeker can operate in concert with the ARH to counter RF shutdown tactics, or in a stand-alone mode to guide to non-emitting time sensitive targets. AARGM is a network-enabled weapon that directly receives tactical intelligence information via an embedded data link and transmits real-time Weapon Impact Assessment (WIA) reports. AARGM, the successor to the US Navy AGM-88 HARM system, is a US and Italian international cooperative major acquisition programme with the US Navy as the executive agent.

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