Forum: F-16 Armament & Stores

Hello All,

I am simply a armature interested in the military aircraft and their capabilities. On another board a member made a claim that the Air Force makes use of the AMRAAM missile as a anti-shipping missile if need be. This obviously turned into a very interesting debate which makes it very hard to decide which argument is right. I figured the best bet was to ask some professionals who work with an AMRAAM capable plane every day.

Thank you in advance for your answers!

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If they could, I think the warhead on a AMRAAM is to small to cripple a ship.

Hmm, I doubt that... I'll ask around people I know in the amraam business and hopefully the answer isn't classified.

Andy

In theory atleast it should be possible, as this has been done with cars and AIM-9`s over the years. Still you would have an issue with getting the missile to lock onto the target. But as Boff180 says, we`ll have to wait until the pro`s get a chance to answer.

You might be waiting a while... I believe all the info on that particular armament is classified.

I would think it's better to use a dumb bomb than an air to air missile... But does water really screw with an Air To Air Radar? I wouldn't think so, so I guess it'd be possible.

From what I understand about the AIM-120, its warhead is too small. For stats, check out "Armament", select AMRAAM. It'll put a dent in a ship, but sink it, I don't think so. Anti-ship weapons have large warheads vs the AMRAAM. OUT!!!! Guys, trust me, it's too small.....

Right thanks to my mate who works with/on AMRAAMs, he gave me an answer.

In theory, the AMRAAM can be used as an anti-ship weapon BUT with some massive drawbacks...

The missiles radar would almost certainly NOT be able to lock onto the ship due to the excessive clutter of the water on the radar.
As a result of this, the missile would not arm. The AMRAAM can be launched without a "lock" however the missile will not arm at all in this situation.
Therefore turning it into an unguided kinetic projectile.

He also highly doubts the warhead would penetrate the armour on the side of a warship either if somehow the missile was to arm.

Andy

Elite 1K Joined: May 26, 2005 - 08:39 PM Posts: 1496

No way would it be employed as an AS missile. There was a story awhile back about some Canadians firing AIM-7s at small boats in Iraq, but that was more out of desperation.

The warhead on an AMRAAM would make an honest to God ocean-going vessel giggle. And using a ~$350,000 missile as an anti-boat rocket seems somewhere on the dumb side of retarded.

Warships don't have armor anymore, but just having to be built to survive the ocean makes them sort of tough, and a proximity detonated blast-frag warhead at best would kill people exposed topside.

Thanks a lot for taking the time to answer a new members question guys

Sir-chimp

Interesting concept, when you think about it... Slammer could be used not as an ASM per se, but in SEAD role leading up to a hard kill - but of course Harm already exists for that role.
Slammer has a HOJ mode which could probably be tweaked to home in on the ship's radars - and the ship's gotta have it's radars on if it wants to detect and defend against incoming threats. Slammer's miniscule RCS and high speed would make it darned difficult for the ship's CIWS to deal with, once the radars are taken out ("soft" target no prob for a small warhead), the ship's basically naked... you could practically come in with LGBs for "moving target practice!"

BTW, there's a precedence to the CF-18/AIM-7 antiship strike role. In Nam, a couple of USAF F-4's shot AIM-7s at night at "suspected" NVN vessels. They scored hits but it turned out to be blue-on-blue... the ships were US and Australian, and there were Aussie casualties.

On a related note, i heard that the navies Standard SM-2 SAM's can be used in a anti shipping role, is that true?

Hmm. The Standard was used as an air launched ARM during Vietnam before being replaced by the Shrike. No idea how it relates to its naval brethren!

EDIT:: Actually, I think the anti-ship capability is the same as our sea dart missiles. In theory (well, practice too) the Sea Dart can be fired at surface vessels by illumintating them with the launch radar just like an aircraft. I imagine the Standard works in a similar way!

Hi SafetyStick,

The Standard and the Shrike was used simultaniously during the action in VietNam. Most Wild Weasel F-105F/G's carried one each as a minimum during missions.

Elite 1K Joined: May 26, 2005 - 08:39 PM Posts: 1496

The RIM-66/67 SM-2 has a secondary anti-ship capability. It has a 130 pound warhead, so it could do some damage to a surface ship.

There is also a variant called the RGM-165 SM-4 Land Attack Standard Missile, which is a modified SM-2 with GPS guidance and a warhead modified to be more lethal to ground targets intended for 'shore bombardment'.

Forum: F-16 Armament & Stores

Interesting question about the AMRAAM