Indra upgrades Meteor missile with improved datalink

A Meteor missile aboard a Swedish Gripen combat aircraft. Partner supplier Indra has developed an improved datalink for the BVRAAM designed to increase its lethality. (Janes/Gareth Jennings)

Indra has upgraded the Meteor with an improved datalink designed to enhance the lethality of the beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile (BVRAAM).

The Spanish subsystem provider for the missile announced a demonstrator of the enhancement on 9 February, saying the new datalink will increase the Meteor's range, kill envelope, and resistance to countermeasures.

“The latest advancement introduced by Indra is related to the development of a particularly critical element: the datalink between the missile and the launch platform, which is responsible for the guidance and control of the weapon,” the company said.

As noted by Indra, a redesigned datalink design has been presented to the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) for the missile, MBDA, and to the Meteor programme's International Joint Project Office (IJPO), “technically validating compliance with the new requirements in order to respond effectively to the evolution of threats and new operational realities”. Following this, Indra has obtained approval at the preliminary design review (PDR) stage, enabling it to begin development and integration of the new datalink into the system.

The Meteor BVRAAM uses two‐way datalinked mid‐course guidance from the launch aircraft (or another third-party aircraft) before switching on its own active radar seeker for the terminal phase. The missile has a secondary inertial mid‐course guidance capability and can also be launched active off‐the‐rail in a fire‐and‐forget mode against targets that are within range.