October 5, 2024: The American AIM-120D3 missile is an much upgraded AMRAAM air-to-air missile. AMRAAM entered service in 1991 and will be augmented and eventually replaced by the AIM-260 JATM with a range of over 240 kilometers. This is needed to deal with the Chinese PL-15 which has a range of 300 kilometers. AIM-260 is supposed to enter service by 2026.

The D3 range is 160 kilometers and guidance system improvements include more reliable, dependable and accurate GPS technology along with improved INS (inertial navigation system), which has long served as the GPS backup in case GPS malfunctions or is electronically jammed. INS is not as accurate as GPS but the other electronics features of the AMRAAM guidance system can compensate and keep INS accuracy close to the GPS standard. INS cannot be jammed because it does not rely on any external signals, which GPS systems receive from GPS satellites in low-earth-orbit. INS takes over when GPS failure is detected. AMRAAM will also switch from active radar homing to home on jamming by an enemy aircraft.

AIM-120D and D3 missiles have a maximum range of 180 kilometers. The 162 kg missile has a 20 kg explosive warhead with a proximity fuze that will detonate when the missiles gets close to the target. The proximity fuze for antiaircraft guns was developed at the end of World War II and proved critical in minimizing the impact of Japanese Kamikaze suicide aircraft. The Kamikaze were, in effect, the first cruise missiles and proximity fuzes in the NASAMS ground launched AMRAAM missiles are currently used by Ukraine against Russian cruise missiles, glide bombs and manned aircraft.

So far AMRAAM has shot down fifteen aircraft and one UH-60 helicopter that was mistakenly fired on. Currently AMRAAM is in use by 31 countries, including Ukraine.

There is also a ground launched version of AMRAAM called NASAMS. This version was initially developed for the Norwegian Air Force by Norwegian firm Kongsberg, in cooperation with American partner Raytheon, which produces AMRAAM. A major upgrade, NASAMS 2, officially entered service in 2007 and since then it has gained interest in more nations.

NASAMS’ popularity is due to a truly open architecture that, unlike the competitor systems, allows NASAMS to be used with a wide variety of radars. Initially NASAMS used the American made MPQ-64 Sentinel radar, but some customers requested a system that can work with different radars and air-to-air missiles. NASAMS has been tested and configured to work with more than 25 different radar systems and can fire just about any air-to-air missile that can be fired from NATO aircraft. All that is required is modifications to the size and electrical connections in the NASAMS launcher cells and software modification of the fire control system. Since NATO has long-established standards for NATO weapons NASAMS takes full advantage of this.

NASAMS has been configured with AIM-120 AMRAAM and the longer-range ER variant, AIM-9X Sidewinder and the European IRIS-T. The last one is an interesting story. Norway has a big stock of IRIS-T for their F-16 fighters but Norway’s new American F-35 are not compatible with IRIS-T, so they decided to use this very modern European missile as a surface-to-air missile in NASAMS systems. This example clearly shows how flexible this system is while the competitor systems are tied to a limited number of missiles and radar.

A typical NASAMS battery consists of 12 launcher vehicles (each carrying six missiles), eight radar vehicles, one fire control center, and one tactical control vehicle. NASAMS does not provide protection for a large area because the max range of its missiles launched from the ground is 50 kilometers while range of battery radar target detection is up t0 160 kilometers. NASAMS batteries are used to protect cities or military bases. In Ukraine NASAMS is being used alongside existing Ukrainian S300 systems. Ukrainian NASAMS systems have so far shot down over a hundred drones and cruise missiles. In response to the threat posed by NASAMS, the Russians have destroyed several NASAMS launchers using missiles and bombs.