Raytheon Developing Extended Range AMRAAM Air TO Air Missile

Raytheon is developing an extended range variant of the combat-proven Advanced Medium Range Air to Air Missile (AMRAAM) for ground-air defense and will enable intercepts at longer range and higher altitudes.

"The new missile will be even faster and more maneuverable than the current AMRAAM," said Mike Jarrett Raytheon vice president of Air Warfare Systems in company’s press statement on Sunday.

"By leveraging many existing AMRAAM components, Raytheon can deliver AMRAAM-ER quickly and affordably with very low risk."Jarrett added. Raytheon will integrate AMRAAM-ER into the Norwegian Advanced Surface to Air Missile System (NASAMS) launcher.

"Combined with the NASAMS launcher, AMRAAM-ER will provide a new level of protection to customers," said Ralph Acaba, vice president of Integrated Air and Missile Defense at Raytheon's Integrated Defense Systems business. "NASAMS is one of the most easily manned, trained, and maintained systems in the world." Acaba added.

Raytheon plans to flight test AMRAAM-ER before the end of the year.