Air-to-air MISSILE RAIL LAUNCHERS
From the ALMA-A1 launcher for the Italian-Brazilian AMX
Program to the latest variant of the F-35 air-to-air missile
rail launchers, AEREA has considerable experience in
design and manufacturing of missile rail launchers for
fighter aircraft, meeting the most demanding requirements
of both the aircraft and the weapon segment.
DESCRIPTION
A major milestone was represented by the development of
the unique design of the AEREA Forward Detent Assembly
(FDA), adopted by Eurofighter for both its MFRL and
ITSPL missile rail launchers. FDA is a multipurpose detent,
immediately compatible with most short/mid range air-toair
missiles such as AIM-9s, IRIS-T, ASRAAM, AMRAAM
and generic BVRAAM (i.e. Meteor).
Its design encompasses:
• In Flight Operable Lock
• Mid body umbilical connector engagement/release
• AIM-9/ASRAAM striker point engagement/retraction
• FWD and AFT Snubbers actuation
• Electrical/Mechanical safety devices operation
• Electrical/Visual status indication for the main operating functions
• In Flight Operable Lock
• Mid body umbilical connector engagement/release
• AIM-9/ASRAAM striker point engagement/retraction
• FWD and AFT Snubbers actuation
• Electrical/Mechanical safety devices operation
• Electrical/Visual status indication for the main operating functions
For the F-35 Program, in the early 2000s, AEREA’s
engineers were relocated to Lockheed Martin in Dallas-
Fort Worth supporting the design of today’s LAU-151/152
missile launchers. Static and Fatigue life ground tests were
performed by AEREA in our laboratories and LAU151/152
are now also manufactured in our Turate plant in support of
the worldwide Lightning II fleet requirements.
A more recent development is the ASRML (AEREA Short Range Missiles Launcher), a lighter missile launcher successfully integrated onto Leonardo’s M346 in both underwing and wingtip installations. ASRML is easily configurable with either standard bail lugs (MS3314) compatible with 14” bomb rack in accordance with MILSTD- 8591 or with two 14” spaced bolts mating with the A/C pylon structure.
A more recent development is the ASRML (AEREA Short Range Missiles Launcher), a lighter missile launcher successfully integrated onto Leonardo’s M346 in both underwing and wingtip installations. ASRML is easily configurable with either standard bail lugs (MS3314) compatible with 14” bomb rack in accordance with MILSTD- 8591 or with two 14” spaced bolts mating with the A/C pylon structure.