On March 31, the US Navy announced that production of the first batch of Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile - Extended Range (AARGM-ER) missiles had started at Northrop Grumman. This air-to-ground missile is primarily intended for anti-radar missions (SEAD - Suppression of Air Defense Enemies), and will therefore embark on the F / A-18E / F Super Hornet, EA-18G Growler and F-35A deployed aboard US Navy aircraft carriers. The USAF should also receive this new weapon for the replacement of its HARM missiles carried by its F-16, and should generalize the use of it to its fleet of F-35A but also to its future F-15EX and its heavy B-21 bombers.
In theory, the AGM-88G AARGM-ER is an evolution of the AGM-88E AARGM. Developed in the mid-2000s according to a joint initiative of the US Navy and the Italian Air Force, the AARGM was an evolution of the famous AGM-88 HARM anti-radar missile of which it took over the cell but replaced the electronics and the seeker. With the AARGM-ER, the exact opposite has been done: the guidance system and the very recent electronics of the AARGM have been recovered and integrated on board a brand new airframe which no longer has nothing to do with the HARM designed in the early 1980s.
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