Typhoon completes flight trials with Brimstone
A UK Eurofighter Typhoon has successfully completed an initial series of flight trials with the Air-to-Surface MBDA Brimstone precision strike missile ahead of firing trials as part of a programme of work to integrate the weapon on to the aircraft.
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The tests were conducted using UK Typhoon Instrumented Production Aircraft (IPA) 6 and led by BAE Systems with the support of Eurofighter GmbH, MBDA and the UK‘s Ministry of Defence.
Conducted from BAE Systems’ site in Warton, Lancashire, the trials were used to test successful airborne communication between the aircraft and missile and gather valuable flight data to ensure a mature product is ready for initial firing trials which are due to take place in the first quarter of 2017.
It is the latest in a series of successful flight trials conducted by the Eurofighter partner companies in recent months as part of a major programme of work to add additional capability on to Typhoon. Central to the programme is the weapons integration work as part of the Phase 2 and Phase 3 Enhancement (P2E/P3E) packages, which will bring additional long range and precision strike capabilities to Typhoon.
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The integration of the deep strike MBDA Storm Shadow missile, led by Leonardo, is continuing. This builds on the ground trials of the weapon and two successful releases of Storm Shadow from Italian IPA2 in 2015. The close collaboration between the partner companies, especially Leonardo and BAE Systems, is ensuring the required capability is delivered in both the P2E and P3E programmes.
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In addition, further firing trials have been completed with MBDA‘s Meteor Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air missile. The sixth in a series of firings, which were also completed last month by aircrew from Leonardo using IPA2 at the UK‘s Hebrides range, were intended to continue to expand the clearance envelope of the weapon validate the modelling and simulation that has been performed by the Eurofighter Partner Companies, Selex and MBDA.