Missile AIM-132 ASRAAM

The AIM-132 ASRAAM (Advanced Short Range Air-to-Air Missile) is a British imaging infrared-guided short-range air-to-air missile produced by MBDA UK. It originated in a 1980s NATO Memorandum of Agreement under which the United States would develop the AIM-120 AMRAAM, while a British-German team with Canadian and Norwegian participation would develop a short-range missile to replace the AIM-9 Sidewinder. Germany withdrew in July 1989, and the United Kingdom redefined the programme around RAF requirements. A UK competition opened in 1990 against MICA and a German design that later became IRIS-T; ASRAAM was declared the winner in 1992 and production began in March that year, and the United States ended its involvement in June 1996. The first missiles were delivered to the RAF in late 1998.

ASRAAM is a fire-and-forget missile intended to engage targets at longer ranges than conventional dogfight missiles, so the pilot can fire and turn away before an opponent closes to weapons range. Its dual-burn solid rocket motor has a larger diameter than those of the Sidewinder and IRIS-T. This gives higher thrust and a speed above Mach 3, and the wider body holds additional computing capacity for counter-countermeasures. Body lift and tail control provide 50 g manoeuvrability.

Blocks 1–5 use a US-supplied 128×128 imaging infrared focal plane array seeker with strapdown inertial guidance. The seeker provides long acquisition range, countermeasure resistance, approximately 90-degree off-boresight lock-on, and aimpoint selection on parts of the target such as the cockpit or engines. In March 2009 the RAAF fired an ASRAAM in LOAL mode at a target behind the wing-line of the launching aircraft. The blast-fragmentation warhead is triggered by a laser proximity fuze or on impact. A laser fuze was chosen over an RF fuze because RF fuzes are vulnerable to jamming.

Block 6 entered Typhoon service in April 2022 and was due to enter F-35 service in 2024. It replaces the original seeker with a higher-resolution UK-built seeker and uses an internal cooler instead of external cooling. It contains no US components and is not subject to ITAR export restrictions. ASRAAM's motor, warhead and fuze also form the basis of the surface-launched CAMM family.

In RAF and Royal Navy service, ASRAAM arms the Typhoon and F-35B. It previously equipped the Harrier GR7 and Tornado GR4. In February 2017 it became the first non-US missile fired from the F-35, in trials at Patuxent River and Edwards AFB. The RAAF selected ASRAAM in February 1998 and operated it on the F/A-18A/B Hornet from August 2004 until the aircraft's retirement in 2021.

India ordered ASRAAM in 2014 to replace the R.550 Magic on its Jaguar fleet. It later selected the missile as its Next-Generation Close Combat Missile to replace the R-73, with testing on the Su-30MKI and planned integration on the Tejas. A 2021 licensing agreement established a final assembly and test facility in Hyderabad. In April 2026 the Indian Air Force issued requests for proposals for integration on the MiG-29UPG and Jaguar. Qatar and Oman have ordered Block 6, and Turkey reportedly included ASRAAM in its 2025 Eurofighter package.

On 14 December 2021 an RAF Typhoon shot down a hostile drone over southern Syria during operations against Islamic State. This was the first British air-to-air kill since the Falklands War. In March 2026, early in the 2026 Iran war, an F-35B of No. 617 Squadron operating from RAF Akrotiri shot down two Iranian drones over Jordan with two ASRAAMs.

Raven is an improvised surface-launched system supplied to Ukraine and revealed in August 2023. It was developed in four months and mounts twin launch rails, taken from decommissioned Hawk, Jaguar and Tornado aircraft, on a Supacat HMT 600 6×6 vehicle. Targeting is provided by an electro-optical suite. Ukrainian forces have used it against helicopters, cruise missiles and Shahed 136 drones, with a reported success rate of around 70% across more than 400 engagements. The first confirmed Raven loss, to a ZALA Lancet loitering munition, was recorded on 7 May 2024.