Beyond The Visual Range Air Combat Myth And Reality

FIRST LOOK– first shot– first kill being the holy grail of air combat, technology is evolving rapidly to yield ever more sophisticated Beyond the Visual Range Air-to-Air Missiles (BVRAAMs). The simple early beam riding designs like ‘Sparrow’ which ushered in the BVRAAM era in early 50s depended on the target being illuminated continuously by the launch aircraft radar until impact with the target.

- Air Marshal AK Trikha (Retd)

To overcome the obvious drawbacks of beam dispersion with distance from its source, next generation BVRAAMs (e.g. AIM 54 – Phoenix etc.), employed semi-active radar homing technique for reaching the target. While advancement to this methodology improved missile accuracy, the arrangement still suffered from the drawback of fighter having to illuminate the target right until missile impact. The next generation of AAMs therefore were kitted out with their own active seekers for terminal guidance. Now the fighter or the launch platform needed to illuminate the target only until acquisition by the missile’s own seeker – thus setting it free to engage more targets or exit the combat zone altogether. All current generation of BVRAAMs incorporate active seekers for terminal phase of attack. The most advanced BVRAAMs like AIM 120 AMRAAM and Russian R-77 are now ‘Fire and Forget’ types. They get off the aircraft rails and use their onboard Inertial Navigation System (INS) to fly towards an impact point computed by the fighter’s fire control system depending on target’s spatial co-ordinates and motion parameters. Fighter’s radar doesn’t have to achieve a lock on the target before launch. On its way the missile receives target location updates via data link either from its mother platform or any third source (like another fighter or AWACS) which may be tracking the target. At appropriate range the missile seeker acquires the target to execute final phase of the attack. This methodology of engagement gives the target relatively little warning of attack and allows the launch aircraft to turn away immediately after launch.

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