[dabigv13]

This is interesting. 

https://www.defensenews.com/industry/202...-with-rtx/

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force has awarded a nearly $1.2 billion contract to the missiles and defense sector of RTX, until recently known as Raytheon Technologies, to produce the next lot of AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles.



Part of the firm-fixed-price deal — the largest ever awarded for AMRAAM weapons — will cover missiles for sale to multiple foreign allies and partners, including Ukraine.

This bit in particular.

RTX said in its own statement the contract will be for the D3 and C8 versions of the AMRAAM, which have the latest F3R — which stands for form, fit, function refresh — upgrades to its software and hardware. Those AMRAAMs also have improved circuit cards and other hardware in their guidance systems.

I don't think it's publicly known what sort of AMRAAMs Ukraine has now for their NASAMS air defense system, but I think many assumed they were maybe earlier variants. Seems the US is comfortable sending out the latest and greatest tech into the field, perhaps Ukraine already has some of the more modern variants in their NASAMS now.

These would presumably be an option for any F16s Ukraine gets as well. While Russia would still likely have some advantage with their longest range AAMs, it would at least extend the F16s range out to give them some safe distance from the Russian ground based air defense system so they could patrol within Ukrainian air space but still pose a danger to Russian aircraft near the front line.


Oh and here's a fun video of a modern Russian Pantsir air defense system taking a couple shots at a Storm Shadow (or maybe MALD).


[Tweet]
https://twitter.com/SmartUACat/status/16...91712?s=20[/tweet]

[dabigv13]

This is interesting. 

https://www.defensenews.com/industry/202...-with-rtx/

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force has awarded a nearly $1.2 billion contract to the missiles and defense sector of RTX, until recently known as Raytheon Technologies, to produce the next lot of AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles.



Part of the firm-fixed-price deal — the largest ever awarded for AMRAAM weapons — will cover missiles for sale to multiple foreign allies and partners, including Ukraine.

This bit in particular.

RTX said in its own statement the contract will be for the D3 and C8 versions of the AMRAAM, which have the latest F3R — which stands for form, fit, function refresh — upgrades to its software and hardware. Those AMRAAMs also have improved circuit cards and other hardware in their guidance systems.

I don't think it's publicly known what sort of AMRAAMs Ukraine has now for their NASAMS air defense system, but I think many assumed they were maybe earlier variants. Seems the US is comfortable sending out the latest and greatest tech into the field, perhaps Ukraine already has some of the more modern variants in their NASAMS now.

These would presumably be an option for any F16s Ukraine gets as well. While Russia would still likely have some advantage with their longest range AAMs, it would at least extend the F16s range out to give them some safe distance from the Russian ground based air defense system so they could patrol within Ukrainian air space but still pose a danger to Russian aircraft near the front line.


Oh and here's a fun video of a modern Russian Pantsir air defense system taking a couple shots at a Storm Shadow (or maybe MALD).


[Tweet]
https://twitter.com/SmartUACat/status/16...91712?s=20[/tweet]