Alliant Techsystems, the U.S. Navy team of PMA-242, the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division – China Lake, and the Italian Air Force recently conducted the first Developmental Test (DT) firing of an Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile (AARGM) from an F/A-18 aircraft on the China Lake test ranges on 25 May 2007. The test firing confirmed the effective integration of AARGM with the F/A-18 aircraft and the continued progress of fielding a long-range, precision strike capability against a wide array of time critical targets.
The missile successfully achieved safe separation from the aircraft, navigated over an extended range to the designated target location, and guided to a direct hit. The successful flight test met all test objectives.
"This was the most significant test in the history of the AARGM program," said Dave Wise, Vice President and General Manager, ATK Advanced Weapons. "Not only did the AARGM missile score a direct hit, it demonstrated how ATK's design offers the war planner affordable, stand-off time sensitive strike capability."
"The entire international AARGM team is very pleased with the results of today's successful test," said CAPT Larry Egbert, the Department of Defense program manager for HARM and AARGM programs.
"This event marks a major milestone in the AARGM SD and D program and demonstrates the positive results that a true international cooperative effort can yield. This successful test demonstrates the viability of an affordable Destruction of Enemy Air Defenses (DEAD) capability for U.S., Italian, and potentially other Allied Air Forces through the upgrade of legacy AGM-88 weapons."
Alliant Techsystems (ATK)
