Eurofighter Typhoon combat jet has successfully conducted the new operational release of the Storm Shadow deep strike missile and Meteor Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air missile at the UK Ministry of Defence’s Hebrides range in Scotland.
The trials were conducted as part of an improvements programme to further enhance the powerful swing-role capability of the jet.
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Launched from the Italian Instrumented Production Aircraft (IPA) 2, the Storm Shadow testing is part of work conducted to expand the safe weapon trajectory data envelope of the missile.
The Storm Shadow testing, which was led by Finmeccanica Aircraft Division, with the support of Eurofighter, BAE Systems, Airbus Defence and Space, and MBDA, follows ground trials on the weapon and its successful release in November last year.
IPA2 chief test pilot Enrico Scarabotto said: "The integration of the weapon further enhances Typhoon’s potent multi-role and swing-role capabilities, adding new capability to strike in day or night, in all-weather conditions.
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"Storm Shadow adds attack stand-off capability to Typhoon which now really accomplishes every possible role in the combat scenario.
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By GlobalData"The aircraft retains excellent performance in an incredible low pilot workload cockpit environment, essential for a single seat multirole aircraft."
The Meteor beyond visual range air-to-air missile was fired using UK Typhoon aircraft IPA6 and the testing was led by BAE Systems with support from MBDA, Selex, QinetiQ and UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) and the Eurofighter teams.
Last year, the air-to-air missile was fired from the aircraft against real air targets in pre-planned scenarios.
BAE Systems Aircraft Programmes for Military Air and Information director Steve Greenbank said: "These latest Meteor firing trials are another step forward in the integration of the missile onto the Typhoon aircraft, demonstrating they can operate safely, accurately and effectively.
"These trials also form important maturity points for the UKs Project CENTURION plan, which will see Typhoon provide the continuous delivery of key combat air capabilities as Tornado moves towards its out-of-service date."
The latest test firings are part of the flight test campaign for the Phase II Enhancement (P2E) programme, which seeks to introduce a range of new and improved long range attack capabilities to Typhoon.
As part of the Phase III Enhancements (P3E) programme, MBDA’s Brimstone precision attack missile is set to be integrated into the Eurofighter Typhoon.
