US fighter jet fires longest air-to-air missile ‘kill’ shot – but the distance is secret
- F-15C fighter took out a BQ-167 aerial target drone in March at Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida
- The US Air Force did not disclose the distance, as that information could be valuable to adversaries
A US Air Force F-15C Eagle fighter fired the longest known air-to-air “kill” shot to date in a recent test, the service said on Wednesday.
The fighter fired an AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) at a BQ-167 target drone and scored a “kill” from the farthest distance ever recorded during testing at Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida in March, the 53rd Wing said in a statement.
The wing did not say exactly what the distance was, as that information could be valuable to adversaries, particularly given ongoing efforts by US rivals to develop long-range air-to-air missiles for improved stand-off in air-to-air combat.
The weapon that was fired during the testing last month was an AIM-120D, the latest version of an all-weather, beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile that first entered service in the early 1990s, a wing spokesperson said.
It is unclear if the weapon or aircraft involved in the test were modified in any way.
The US Air Force plans to eventually replace the AMRAAM with a weapon called the AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile, a longer-range air-to-air missile expected to be able to better compete with some of the systems developed by US rivals, such as China’s PL-15 missile.
The US Air Force is also pursuing other lines of effort as America’s competitors do the same.