Copyright Eurofighter Italian Eurofighter partner Alenia Aermacchi, has successfully conducted the first release of Storm Shadow bunker b...
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Copyright Eurofighter |
The trials took place in November and saw the missile being released from the aircraft and tracked by radar up to impact.
The integration of missile will allow simultaneous multi-/swing-role missions to strike in day or night in all-weather conditions, well-defended infrastructure targets such as port facilities, control centres, bunkers, missile sites, airfields and bridges that would otherwise require several aircraft and missions.
Storm Shadow, already in service with the Italian Air Force and Royal Air Force Tornado fighter jets, is a conventionally armed, stealthy, long-range stand-off precision weapon designed to neutralise high value targets.
Powered by a turbo-jet engine, with a range in excess of 250 km, the Storm Shadow missile weighs approximately 1.300kg and is just over 5 metres long. The standoff range allow the pilot to keep away from enemy counter defenses.
The first tests on Storm Shadow integration for the Eurofighter began in December 2013 with development aircraft IPA2 operated by Alenia Aermacchi. Initially the Early Weapon Integration Flexibility tests featured a configuration of 2 Storm Shadow missiles, 2 AIM-9L Air-to-Air missiles, and 4 under fuselage Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM).
Six further flights were then completed in the following weeks to assess the Storm Shadow’s compatibility with the Eurofighter’s Air Data System and Flutter & Structural Coupling tests were also carried out.
An additional later flight was then performed with baseline configuration (2 AIM-9L, 4 under fuselages AMRAAM and 1 Fuel Tank only) for comparative analyses purposes.
The assessment of the Performance & Loads on the aircraft while carrying the missiles was done in March 2014 in a programme known as Extended WIF phase 1. Five flights were performed with the Storm Shadows installed and a further three with baseline configuration.
The recent inert drop-tests and store release trials will now be followed by work on the instrumented missiles for the Environmental Data Gathering tests known as Phase 3. Additional work will include flights with the automatic pilot set for new aircraft configuration, and further flights for assessing handling qualities.
