RMAF Air To Air Missile Firings

A Flanker flying with an ACMI pod over Labuan. Malaysian Defence

SHAH ALAM: RMAF has published videos of its fighter aircraft firing air to air missiles, most likely for the first time. The videos published on its social media pages within the last two days, showed the Sukhoi Su-30MKM Flanker, Bae Systems Hawk Mk108s and the Boeing F/A-18D Hornet firing missiles as part of the 2020 air to air missile firing exercise.

The first video uploaded was that of the Flanker – No. 12 Squadron – firing a R-77 (AA-12) missile, second a Hawk firing an AIM-9M Sidewinder while the third was the Hornet from the No. 18 Squadron firing the latest version of the Sidewinder, the AIM-9X. I believed this was the first time the Hornets had fired the X, the latest and greatest version of the Sidewinder.

A screengrab of the AIM-9X after it was fired from the Hornet.

From RMAF Facebook page

Tentera Udara Diraja Malaysia telah melaksanakan Program Validasi Tembakan Misil Udara ke Udara (AAMF) bagi tahun 2020 di kawasan latihan sekitar perairan Selat Melaka.
Objektif utama program ini adalah bagi menguji tahap kompetensi anak kapal pesawat pejuang dan juga kesiagaan aset-aset TUDM. Program ini bermula dari 15 sehingga 20 Nov 20 yang melibatkan pesawat Sukhoi SU-30MKM, F/A-18D Hornet, Hawk 108/208 dan B200T

AAMF Berjaya Menguji Keupayaan Kompetensi dan Kesiagaan Pesawat dan Anak Kapal TUDM

Melalui Latihan Tembakan Misil Udara ke Udara (AAMF) 2020 , No. 18 Skuadron sekali lagi telah membuktikan prestasi dan tahap kesiagaan yang cemerlang apabila berjaya melaksanakan tembakan peluru berpandu AIM-9X yang tercanggih di dunia dengan menggunakan Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System (JHMCS) yang dipakai oleh anak kapal F/A-18D Hornet. Latihan tembakan adalah bertujuan menguji keberkesanan peluru berpandu tercanggih yang dimiliki TUDM selepas Program Naik Taraf pesawat F/A-18D Hornet sebagai aset yang setanding dengan pesawat-pesawat canggih di dunia. Keberkesanan peluru berpandu ini ternyata membuktikan kesiapsiagaan TUDM secara amnya, apabila berjaya mengenai sasaran yang dibidik secara off boresight dengan menggunakan JHMCS. Pujian sewajarnya diberikan kepada warga No. 18 Skuadron serta semua pihak yang terlibat menjayakan latihan AAMF.

On the Hawk mission.

Latihan Tembakan Misil Udara ke Udara (AAMF) melibatkan pesawat Hawk dari No 6 dan No 15 Skn. Pelaksanaan latihan ini untuk menguji tahap kompetensi juruterbang pesawat Hawk serta “ground crew” dan juga menguji kesiagaan aset-aset TUDM yang terlibat.

R-77 missile shortly before it was fired.

As RMAF did not published any photographs from the missile firings nor send out videos for download, we have to rely on the screengrabs from the videos to see whats going on. The video of the Flanker missile shot showed that it was carrying the ACMI pod as seen by Malaysian Defence last year. The post also will give an overview of a missile firing exercise so if you have any questions on the latest one, please read the post for context

The R-77 on its way to the target. Note the ACMI pod on the port wing.

— Malaysian Defence

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Shah Alam

19 Comments

  1. Are these live target practice exercises or simply letting the missiles run until burn out?

    Reply
    See the previous post for the targets

  2. They are probably bored out of their minds due to this Covid thing that even flares become exciting.

    Any news of the 2nd LMS batch? Is it confirmed that we are no longer continuing the Keris class ships?

  3. Hope if possible to upgrade the su 30 radar could be upgraded so can u se the lates r77m which have almost 200km range

  4. “The SU-30MKM radar has 250-300km range against fighter sized targets as is.”

    Much room for interpretation in this statement. Fighters of similar “size” have widely different RCS. RCS and detection range also depend on what stores the aircraft is carrying and the aspect at which it faces the radar. Various radars also have varying resistance to jamming.

    Marketing literature is just marketing literature.

  5. @ AM

    BARS radar is one of the most powerful radar installed on a fighter, bar fully AESA ones. Why it is so huge and heavy.

    200km shots is basically for large sized targets like tankers anyway. Shooting another fighter at 200km gives the target plenty of time to react.

  6. AM – “Marketing literature is just marketing literature”

    Absolutely correct. Marketing literature is intended to impress; glosses over the plus points but avoids the minus points. Which is why it’s important to read between the lines and also see what’s not mentioned.

    Also why it’s so important for non scripted trials to be performed in local conditions with the OEM and local agent having no opportunity to influence things.

    We can’t take for granted anything’s “proven” (subjective), cost effective or can really do as advertised in real world conditions as opposed to on glossy catalogue pages until we really find out for ourselves.

  7. @…
    “The SU-30MKM radar has 250-300km range against fighter sized targets as is.”

    I would say this is correct for a large fighter with RCS of 15m^2 and above like the f15 and su27/30/35. For smaller fighter of 3-5m^2 RCS it would be from 160-250km. This performance is probably comparable to that of apg63v3 on f15sg

  8. Luqman,

    How high the target is flying as well as other factors like jamming also determines things. What is printed on a glossy marketing brochure and what is actually possible in real world conditions can be slightly different.

  9. https://twitter.com/airforcenextgen/status/1329681523507826689

    That name Goh Keng Loon…

    Suddenly i remembered. That is the same Goh KL in Malaya Historical Group I once knew all those years ago.

    Well we were young (he was still in pulatibang i think at the time) and we were very interested in tracking down ex japanese airstrips all over malaya, and the naive prospects of finding an abandoned Mitsubishi Zero or two!

    Good to see how far ahead he has gone in TUDM.

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