The European MBDA Meteor air-to-air guided missile can be considered the best in the medium-range missile class, and its unique engine ensures high efficiency in most parts of the flight. Nevertheless, the potential integration of the missile into Ukraine’s F-16s will depend not only on the missile’s main manufacturers but also on the United States, which does not approve of other countries’ desire to integrate non-U.S. weapons into American equipment.

Meteor missile features

The development of the Meteor missile was primarily driven by the Royal Air Force of the United Kingdom’s requirements in the 1990s to acquire a new long-range weapon capable of destroying targets at distances of more than 200 km and providing high performance at low altitudes. In addition, the missile had to remain within the weight and dimensions of the American AIM-120 (weight 161 kg +-, length 3.6 meters, diameter 178 mm), which was actively purchased by European countries and Britain itself at the time. A real step forward was the integration of a ramjet engine manufactured by the German company Bayern-Chemie into the missile.

The new type of engine provides a 5-fold improvement in missile performance compared to a conventional solid rocket engine. By using oxygen as an oxidizer for the engine, the missile gains a number of advantages over its competitors. First of all, this is due to the use of air intakes that serve to direct the airflow to the engine. The airflow also affects the missile’s output energy, which should be used depending on the altitude from which the launch is made and the range of the target. If the target is at a short range or the launch takes place at a low altitude, the missile opens the air intake fully to allow the engine to operate at full power. If the target is at a long range, the missile software adjusts the amount of air to ensure the most efficient engine operation and selects the appropriate flight profile.

In addition, the missile has the ability to completely close the air intakes during flight to shut down the engine and launch it at the appropriate range to the target. This capability allows it to use full engine power in close proximity to the target, which improves maneuverability and increases the probability of hitting a target that maneuvers and makes an anti-missile maneuver.

It should be noted that the control of thrust is not available on other globally used medium-range air-to-air missiles due to the use of a solid rocket engine where the corresponding concentration of oxidizer is already packed inside the missile. In addition, such missiles do not have the ability to adjust thrust and completely shut down the engine.

Despite the advantages of this type of engine, it should be noted that due to the use of overall air intakes, the missile has worse aerodynamic qualities compared to classic missiles with a solid rocket engine. Their presence increases drag, due to which the missile loses speed at a faster pace, and the maneuverability with the engine turned off deteriorates.

As for the guidance system, the Meteor missile is not that different from other modern missiles that use an active homing head, except for the Japanese Type 99B. The Japanese missile uses an active phased array antenna, which has an advantage over a slot antenna in terms of target identification against the ground, acquisition, detection range of small targets, and reduced sensitivity to electronic interference. Currently, the slot antenna is installed on the European Meteor, American AIM-120, Russian R-77, Chinese PL-12, and others.

Can the Meteor missile be integrated into the F-16?

The integration of the Meteor missile is possible on the F-16 fighter jet due to the use of the modern MIL-STD-1760 Aircraft/Store Electrical Interconnection System, which allows the use of this type of missile by updating the software and recording the relevant information. The MIL-STD-1760 standard itself is an interface that allows to establish communication between aircraft systems and weapons or countermeasures systems. Due to the widespread use of this standard, all US and some NATO aircraft use it. It should be noted that integrated weapons can operate in different ways, through different radars, the presence/absence of the Link 16 data link, or different models of suspended reconnaissance and target designation pods.

Most F-16 fighter jets, as well as the MLU variant, are currently equipped with airborne radars of the AN/APG-66 (v) 2 series (AN/APG-68 on aircraft upgraded after 2010) that use a slot antenna for transmission and radiation. Nowadays, this type of antenna can be considered obsolete for modern fighter jets due to the limitations associated with space scanning.

It is the use of a slot antenna that makes it impossible to effectively use missiles against multiple air targets. This is primarily due to the low speed of space scanning. Secondly, radar stations of this type require a special mode for guiding missiles, including Meteor and AIM-120 missiles. Because of this, information about the position of the enemy aircraft in space will have an error that will affect efficiency.

To improve air combat capabilities and for better awareness, F-16 MLU fighter jets transferred to Ukraine must undergo the process of modernization with AN/APG-83 AESA radar. The new radar will simultaneously fire several aerial targets and search for new targets in the air.

The new AFAR AN/APG-83 radar will provide a high-quality advantage over Russian aircraft and will allow it to fully realize the capabilities of active guidance of the missile and a ramjet in the event of an air fight.

Potential transfer of Meteor to Ukraine, who should give permission?

The development and production of the Meteor missile takes place with the involvement of about 50 companies from five countries, including the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, and Sweden, that are united in a joint venture MBDA. Despite this, the main assets per missile are held by the MBDA consortium from the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. These three countries, in the case of missile exports, should give the green light for its sale since the bulk of the components used in the missile depend on them.

Component production among these countries is distributed as follows:

• United Kingdom: Thermal battery (ASB), Power Systems and Launch System (Cobham);
• Germany: warhead (TDW), inertial measurement unit (Litef), engine (Bayern-Chemie);
• France: active radar homing (Thales and MBDA France);
• Spain: control system (Indra Sistemas), missile body (Sener);
• Sweden: proximity fuze (Saab Bofors Dynamics).

Because of this distribution, each of the three countries should allow the sale of this missile in the case of export. In the event of a ban, the sale may be canceled.

Due to such a policy of collective permits, potential buyers of weapons bypass products that are created together with several countries. If at least one of the manufacturer’s countries imposes sanctions on the Meteor missile user, further sale of these missiles, as well as maintenance, will be impossible.

Starting in 2016, the Meteor missile started to enter combat units and is currently used by Britain, France, Sweden, Germany, South Korea, Brazil, Greece, India, Spain, Qatar, and Croatia.

In addition, these missiles were fully integrated into Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft (except Italian and Spanish), Saab Gripen C and E, Dassault Rafale, and Korean perspective aircraft KAI KF-21 Boramae.

Conclusion

The integration of the European medium-range Meteor missile will improve the capabilities of Ukrainian F-16s, which will receive a longer-range weapon than the latest US AIM-120s, and will allow them to be launched from low altitudes. In addition, the use of this type of missile could potentially become a weapon that would effectively destroy carriers of bombs with UMPK kits at long ranges.

Despite the possible joint permission to sell these missiles to Ukraine, as of now, the most important problem is actually the United States, which, in the case of the transfer of missiles of this type to Ukraine, should conduct the work on integrating the missile into the aircraft software, which is blocked for all users of F-16 fighter jets in the world. Both company representatives and the relevant authorities in the U.S. Department of Defense must give permission for such an integration.