The Swedish Gripen E fighter jet launched the first test fire of a Meteor air-to-air missile.

This was reported by Saab.

The Meteor missile was launched from a Gripen E fighter jet at an altitude of approximately 16,500 feet (about 5,000 m) above the Vidsel test site in the north of Sweden.

“It feels very good that we have now completed the first test firing with Meteor from Gripen E.

It is a very important milestone both for the program and for Saab.

It shows that the weapon capability of Gripen is at the absolute forefront,” says Mikael Olsson, head of flight testing and verification at Saab.

The Gripen E flight test program focuses on the continued development and testing of primarily tactical systems, as well as integrating various aircraft weapons, such as Meteor air-to-air missiles.

The Gripen E fighter jet is a Swedish multi-purpose single-seat advanced version of the Swedish fourth-generation Gripen C aircraft, which was developed and manufactured by Saab.

Improvements include new cockpit instrumentation and a new radar with an active phased array. Combat aircraft has 10 hard points.

The Meteor missile was manufactured by the MBDA and is capable of hitting targets at a distance of up to 200 km. The length of the rocket is 3.6 meters, and the weight is 180 kg.

Meteor uses a ramjet engine with variable thrust power. According to the manufacturer, the missile is resistant to radio-electronic countermeasures.

The missile is designed to hit air targets outside the line of sight and is capable of reaching speeds of up to four Mach numbers (about 4.6 thousand kilometers per hour).