Military aviation forum since 2003, with high quality discussion focusing on the F-16, F-35 and F-22 jet fighters and the C-130.
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In this site one user gave the nez calculations s/he made like this:
Aim 120 b: 30 km
Aim 120 c: 35 km
Aim 120 d: 70 km
Meteor: 90+ km
I dont know how he or she made these calculations but the difference between b and c models and c and d seem unreasonable to me. Because while max effective range of b is 70 and c 110 km there is only 15 percent increase in nez of c.
The site you have given is a forum. And the person making the so called calculations is admitting that he is guessing.
Any missile that is not dual thrust or not dual pulse or not a missile with a throttleable ramjet engine, will never give you a definite long NEZ value.
Many factors will effect the range and NEZ value. Some are:
- Altitude at which the missile is fired (higher the better)
- Speed of the plane
- Burn time of missile hence the max speed achievable
- Missile seeker head configuration
- Amount of thrust vectoring and manoeuvring applied
- Altitude at which the missile engages target
A dual thrust missile will have in it’s fuel tank two types of fuel; one that burns quick to accelerate it, and one that burns slow to sustain propulsion longer. These missiles will have longer ranges and better chance of hitting the target. (Like in aim7 sparrow, agm88 harm and sm2 missiles) Aim120 is using the Hercules built rocket. It has a boost-sustain design motor. In other words it has a dual thrust Rocket engine.
A dual pulse missile will have effectively two partitions of fuel. First part will be used to accelerate then missile will coast and then at terminal phase the missile will use second part of fuel to speed up and make a kill. (Like our Hisar and Siper missiles) aim120-D is supposedly using a dual pulse rocket engine.
We all know by now the specs of throttleable ramjet a2a missile, Meteor. This is an air breathing jet engined missile that can travel between 2-4.5 Mach speeds and hence has propulsion in terminal phase through a throttleable ramjet to give almost no chance to it’s target.
