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| Rafale fighter jet carrying ASMP /Defence View rudal missile |
International Military - A few days ago, France had tested its missile from a Rafale fighter jet. The test of a missile fired from a Rafale fighter jet was declared a success by the French Ministry.
As a member of the Western bloc and a major military power in Europe, France has always focused on homemade weapons and worked independently. France is the only country in the Western military to have an air base for a nuclear force, apart from the US.
Quoted from Defense View, on March 23, 2022, France tested the upgraded ASMP-A aerial nuclear missile. The test missile was fired from a Rafale fighter jet also made by French company Dassault Aviation.
The French Ministry of Armed Forces announced on social media about the missile test. A French Air Force Rafale fighter jet takes off from Cazaux airport in southwest France, adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean.
They said the ASMP-A strategic medium-range air-to-surface missile test was fired from a Rafale fighter jet and was successful. The missile test was carried out by the French Directorate General of Armaments (DGA).
The ASMP missile entered service in May 1986 replacing the previous free-fall AN-22 bomb on the French Dassault Mirage IV aircraft and the AN-52 bomb on the Dassault Super tendard. An improved version of the ASMP medium-range nuclear air-to-ground missile was commissioned in May 2009.
The missile uses a liquid-fuel ramjet engine. To some extent, the ASMP missile was a derivative of the ANF supersonic anti-ship missile that France failed to serve at the time, its air inlets on both sides exactly the same as the ANF.
The ASMP-A uses air intakes on both sides and its configuration is similar to that of the ANF missile. ASMP and ASMP-A are 5.38 meters long and weigh 860 kg. Due to the small size of the missile the range of the ASMP is also limited.
The original ASMP missile had a range of only 300 km with a TN81 warhead with a thermonuclear warhead (hydrogen bomb) with a yield of 10 to 300,000 tonnes. Meanwhile, ASMP-A, which started service on the Mirage 2000N and Rafale in 2009, has further expanded its coverage.
The range of the missiles was increased to 500 kilometers and switched to the new TNA nuclear warheads, with 54 produced in 2015. The missile tested this time was likely an ASMPA-R (refurbished) which had been in development since 2016.
Experts believe France tested this missile in the middle of the Ukraine-Russia war, but the distance between Paris and Moscow is more than 2,400 kilometers.