Gained 3 inches in diameter! Why can’t the NASAMS extended-range missile be mounted on the F-16?

The United States announced the sale of AMRAAM-ER missiles to Taiwan. The missile body is "narrow at the front and wide at the back", which is different from the standard AIM-120 missile. (Picture: taken from Raytheon website)

[Reporter Luo Tianbin/Taipei Report] The first phase of the "National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System" (NASAMS) purchased by our country has entered the delivery period. However, many people are curious that the AMRAAM-ER extended-range missile obtained with the case clearly has the abbreviation of "air-to-air missile" in its name. In the future, can it be mounted on the F-16V fighter aircraft currently in service of the Air Force to extend the fighter's air superiority strike range in one fell swoop? The results may be different from what you and I imagined, because the AMRAAM-ER missile is a special variant optimized for ground air defense and cannot be mounted by fighter aircraft at this stage.

Judging from the technical specifications, AMRAAM-ER's missile body design has undergone fundamental "genetic recombination." It adopts a "narrow front and wide rear" composite architecture: the front guidance section and warhead retain the 7-inch active radar homing structure of the standard AIM-120 advanced medium-range air-to-air missile; but in order to greatly increase the range, the rear solid rocket propeller (Rocket Motor) is directly replaced with a large propulsion rocket from the US Navy's current RIM-162 "Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile" (ESSM).

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The United States previously sold NASAMS systems to European countries. The missiles it fired were AIM-120 series missiles with long bamboo pole-shaped missiles, which were obviously different from AMRAAM-ER missiles. (Picture: taken from Kongsberg Defense and Aerospace website)

This modification of the propulsion system directly led to drastic changes in the physical geometry data of the missile. The diameter of the AMRAAM-ER projectile has increased from 7 inches to 10 inches (25.4 centimeters), and the total weight of the projectile has also increased from 158 kilograms to 279 kilograms. The LAU-129 missile launch rail on the wing tip of the F-16 fighter aircraft is completely incompatible with this heavy-duty missile that is "fat and twice as heavy" in terms of physical slot size, structural load-bearing strength, or electronic feedback interface under high payload.

In addition, there is a technical gap between the two in terms of aerodynamic flight engineering and airworthiness certification. For a missile to be mounted on a fighter aircraft, it must undergo a lengthy "aircraft-bomb integration" wind tunnel test and a high-altitude live ammunition drop test to ensure that the wing structure will not be damaged due to missile vibration when the fighter aircraft flies at supersonic speeds or rotates with high G forces in fierce air battles. The AMRAAM-ER's tail control wing is optimized for vertical/inclined launch from the ground and rapid sprinting to high altitudes to intercept cruise missiles and drones. It has not been certified for aerodynamic shape integration and throw with the F-16 fighter jet.

Raytheon tests AMRAAM-ER missile shooting screen. (Picture: taken from Raytheon website)

However, this design does not hinder the flexible integration of Taiwan and the United States' asymmetric combat capabilities. Technically, the launch box of the NASAMS system adopts a highly compatible universal guide rail and an open software architecture. Although the ground-to-air AMRAAM-ER cannot be sent to the sky, the standard AIM-120C-7/C-8 air-to-air missiles normally mounted on F-16 fighters can "turn from air to ground" at any time during wartime. In the event that the runway at the base is damaged during wartime and prevents fighter jets from taking off, ground crews can integrate the digital data link of the system to immediately remove and load the missiles from the fighter jets into the NASAMS system and mix them with extended-range missiles for combat, demonstrating extremely high flexibility in logistics toughness.