Denmark approved for AIM-120C-8 AMRAAM missiles

The US has approved the sale of AIM-120C-8 AMRAAM missiles to Denmark, with which the Royal Danish Air Force will arm its fleet of F-35A Lightning II combat aircraft. (Danish MoD/Lockheed Martin)

The US government has cleared the sale of the latest variant of the RTX AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) to Denmark.

Announced by the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) on 7 June, the approval for the AIM-120C-8 covers 84 missiles and related equipment, spares, support, and training for an estimated USD215.5 million.

“The proposed sale will improve Denmark's capability to meet current and future threats by ensuring it has modern, capable air-to-air munitions. The sale will further advance the already high level of [Royal] Danish Air Force interoperability with US Joint Forces and other regional and NATO forces. Denmark already has AMRAAM in its inventory and will have no difficulty absorbing these articles into its armed forces,” the DSCA said.

More widely known as the AIM-120D, the AIM-120C-8 has significantly improved no-escape envelope and high-angle off-boresight capabilities over earlier variants of the AMRAAM. As noted in Janes Weapons: Air-Launched , the AIM-120C-8/AIM-120D is intended to deliver improved performance beyond the AIM-120C-7 through the use of an internal GPS, an enhanced datalink, and new software.

The missile is fitted with an active radar seeker, similar to that used on the AIM-120C-7, and while sources have suggested that the AIM-120C-8/AIM-120D is intended to have a dual-mode seeker capable of active and passive radio frequency (RF) homing, programme officials have denied this.

The AIM-120C-8/AIM-120D is reported to have a range of 160 km and flies at a speed of Mach 4.

For more information on the AMRAAM, please seeAIM-120 Advanced Medium‐Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) .