Germany has conducted its first firing of MBDA’s Meteor beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile from one of its Eurofighter combat aircraft.
Announcing the development on 6 December, the German air force says the milestone test was conducted by a jet operating from the Royal Air Force’s Lossiemouth base in Scotland. Video footage released by the Luftwaffe shows this to have been a two-seat example.
“Meteor provides pilots with a state-of-the-art and extremely powerful effector to take action against enemy aircraft at long and medium ranges,” the Luftwaffe says.
The service has until now operated its Eurofighters armed with Raytheon’s medium-range AIM-120 AMRAAM and the short-range Diehl BGT Defence IRIS-T.
With a range of up to 108nm (200km), the ramjet-engined Meteor is already employed by other Eurofighter partner nations Italy, Spain and the UK. It also is carried by the Dassault Aviation Rafale for France and Saab Gripen for Sweden, and is being integrated with Korea Aerospace Industries’ in-development KF-21 fighter.
Separately, German air force inspector General Ingo Gerhartz recently visited Lockheed Martin’s Marietta site in Germany, where he a bulkhead to be used with the service’s first of an eventual 35 F-35A stealth fighters.
Lockheed is due to begin F-35 deliveries to the Luftwaffe during 2027, with the type to replace its remaining Panavia Tornado strike aircraft.
European Defence Editor Craig Hoyle has reported on the UK, European and international military aviation sector for almost 30 years, and has also been the Editor of Flight International since 2015. He joined FlightGlobal in 2003, and also compiles our annual World Air Forces directory.View full Profile
