On the 17th of September FMV, the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration, signed a production order contract with United Kingdom MOD regarding the Meteor missile.
With the Meteor missile the JAS39 Gripen system gets a significantly increased capability to operate against air targets at long distances with very high performance.
The European co-operation behind the Meteor missile system began in 2002 with UK as lead nation and Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Sweden as participants. Sweden has been a very active participant since the beginning and most of the test-firings during the development have been carried out with the JAS 39 Gripen aircraft as the primary development platform.
“The development has now reached the point where Sweden can sign a production order for operational missiles. Sweden is number three to sign production orders after UK and Spain,” says Project Manager Michael Östergren at FMV.
From Sweden FMV’s Director General Gunnar Holmgren signed the agreement and from the UK it was General Sir Kevin O’Donoghue in his role as Chief of Defence Materiel within the UK MOD.
FMV has already signed an order with Saab Aerosystems for integration of the Meteor missile on the JAS39 Gripen C/D, version 20. The Meteor missile system is expected to be operational within the Swedish Air Force 2015.
Meteor Facts
Meteor is a next-generation radar-guided missile, driven by a ramjet engine. This makes it possible to adjust thrust and thereby maximizing the performance during the missile flight, as well as its speed and range. The missile is resistant to electronic countermeasures.
The type of missile that Meteor represents is known as BVRAAM, which stands for Beyond Visual Range Air to Air Missile.
Swedish industry has collaborated in the development of subsystems for the missile. Subsystems will also be produced in Sweden during the production phase.
The final assembly will take place in the UK.
