Airbus Articles

RIM-162 ESSM Missile: Naval Anti-Air in a Quad Pack

RIM-162 ESSM Missile: Naval Anti-Air in a Quad Pack

RIM-162: sections (click to view full) The RIM-162 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile (ESSM) is used to protect ships from attacking missiles and aircraft, and is designed to counter supersonic maneuvering anti-ship missiles. Compared to the RIM-7 Sea Sparrow, ESSM is...

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Serious Dollars for AEGIS Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD)

Serious Dollars for AEGIS Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD)

AEGIS-BMD: CG-70 launches SM-3 (click to view full) The AEGIS Ballistic Missile Defense System seamlessly integrates the SPY-1 radar, the MK 41 Vertical Launching System for missiles, the SM-3 Standard missile, and the ship's command and control system, in order to...

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Tomahawk’s Chops: xGM-109 Block IV Cruise Missiles

Tomahawk’s Chops: xGM-109 Block IV Cruise Missiles

Block IV Cutaway (click to view full) Block IV Tomahawk is the current generation of the Tomahawk family of cruise missiles. The BGM-109 Tomahawk family began life in the 1980s as sub-sonic, low-flying nuclear strike weapons, before being developed into long-range...

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V-22 Osprey: The Multi-Year Buys

V-22 Osprey: The Multi-Year Buys

(click to view full) In March 2008, the Bell Boeing Joint Project Office in Amarillo, TX received a $10.4 billion modification that converted the previous N00019-07-C-0001 advance acquisition contract to a fixed-price-incentive-fee, multi-year contract. The new...

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Trident II D5 Missile: Keeping Up with Changing Times

Trident II D5 Missile: Keeping Up with Changing Times

Trident II D5 Test Launch (click to view full) Nuclear tipped missiles were first deployed on board US submarines at the height of the Cold War in the 1960s, to deter a Soviet first strike. The deterrence theorists argued that, unlike their land-based cousins,...

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