The first phase of the campaign took place in recent weeks at the Hebrides Range range in the United Kingdom Operational Testing and Evaluation (OT&E) del Beyond Visual Range Air to Air Missile (BVRAAM) Meteor and Advanced Medium Range Air to Air Missile (AMRAAM), conducted by the Air Force as part of the planned operational verification activities of the F-2000A weapon system with the aim of evaluating different types of armament, sensors and capacitive development software, necessary for carrying out the multiple types of mission that the aircraft is called upon to carry out in the Armed Forces.
Following the full operation of a new configuration that allows the Eurofighter aircraft Typhoon to be equipped with the missile Meteor (Phase 2 of Enhancement bravo – P2Eb), thanks to this first launch campaign it was possible to verify the behavior of the armament in conditions representative of possible operational scenarios, against real targets remotely controlled from the ground.
This first test phase, which will be followed by a second at the end of 2024, was coordinated by the 4th department of the Air Force General Staff and conducted with the support of a joint team - in technical jargon "Typhoon Operational Evaluation Team (TOET)" - made up of pilots and engineers from the experimental flight department, weapons instructors from the operational groups Typhoon e mission data specialists of ReSTOGE, assisted by support personnel from all F-2000A departments. A synergy at all levels - from pilots to engineers to maintenance technicians - which allowed the activity to be carried out effectively and in complete safety.
The Team conducted flight and ground tests, using for the first time a telemetric version of the missile called Telemetric Operational Missile (TOM) Meteor, which made it possible to record all the flight parameters, essential for verifying the real behavior of the missile. In addition, as a secondary objective, the AMRAAM missile launch activity was carried out, to evaluate the armament in conditions of increasing difficulty.
