At the beginning of 2000, 60 ASMP missiles (and 42 TN81 warheads) were allotted to Mirage 2000N planes belonging to the air force and 24 ASMP missiles (and 20 TN81 warheads) to the Super-Etendard of the air-naval service.
Following the orientations taken in strategic committee and ratified in the law of programming 1997-2002, the choice was made on a missile to ramjet called improved ASMP or ASMPA to succeed the current airborne component. The phase of feasibility the ASMPA program began at the end of 1997. The launching of the development is envisaged at the beginning of 2000 for a entry into service into 2010.
Compared to current missile ASMP, the ASMPA will offer a greater range (500 to 600 km) and a greater diversity of trajectories, including final penetrations man_uvrantes at very low altitude. The development of the ASMPA is also prepared by an operation, called Vesta, financed to the title of the line " work of aerobic transition " from the law of programming, which will make it possible to test in flight a vector with ramjet common to the improved ASMP and anti-ship missile future ANF. The two missiles will share the same liquid ramjet with prolonged combustion and the same section of guidance piloting. They will differ by their final guidance and, obviously, the nature of their payload. The three exploratory developments launched in 1993 and the exploratory research preparing the project of missile air/sol long range (ASLP) were the major reorientation object in order to cover complementary work necessary to the ASMP improved and not included in the tests of feasibility or the Vesta operation.
The Air-Sol Longue Portee (ASLP) was a longer-range version of the ASMP proposed as a co-development project with Britain. It would have had a range of 1,000-1,200 km and would replace the WE177 nuclear gravity bombs providing the Royal Air Force.
|Weight||1,896 lb. (860 kg)|
|length||17 ft 8 in (5.38 m)|
|diameter||12 in (300 mm)|
|width||3 ft 2 in (0.96 m)|
SNPE solid-propellant booster|
ONERA/Aerospatiale kerosene-fueled ramjet
|speed|| Mach 3 @ high altitude |
Mach 2 @ low altitude
300 km @ high altitude |
80 km @ low altitude
60 km against naval targets