The U.S. Air Force and Raytheon, an RTX business, have finished the initial flight test of the AIM-120C-8 missile.
Fired from an F-15C Eagle, this international edition of the AMRAAM missile successfully eliminated the aerial target and achieved each of the assessment’s primary objectives, RTX announced from Tucson, Arizona on Friday.
Paul Ferraro, president of air power at Raytheon highlighted AMRAAM’s combat-proven capabilities and noted its use by over 40 international partners for both air-to-air and surface to air missions.
AIM-120C-8 was developed under the Form, Fit, Function refresh. With this method, engineers used model-based systems engineering programs and additional digital technologies to improve multiple circuit cards and modern processors in the missile’s guidance segment and to re-host preceding software from the AIM-120D-3 and AIM-120C-8 AMRAAMS.
“With the advancements from F3R, which updates both the missile’s hardware and allows for future Agile software upgrades, we are maximizing the capabilities of this munition for allies around the world,” Ferraro said.
The team also recently completed the flight testing of the AIM-120D-3, which concluded only 11 months after its first flight test with a demonstration of the weapon’s capabilities in a contested environment.
In June, Raytheon received a $1.15 billion AMRAAM contract from the Air Force to manufacture AIM-120-D3 and C-8 missiles for the service branch and U.S. Navy as well as 18 other nations, including Ukraine.