The French Directorate Common of Armament (DGA, Route générale de l’armement) introduced the qualification of the AASM 1000 GS munition (a 1,000 kg modular air-to-ground weapon with GPS and inertial steering) and its help system. The AASM 1000 is designed to be put in on the US-origin Mk84 and BLU109 high-power bomb our bodies, but in addition on the brand new developments in progress by the French firm ARESIA (BA84 and P1000 bomb our bodies). The AASM 1000 is likely one of the new capabilities built-in to the Rafale’s F4 normal, with qualification of the primary increment (F4.1) scheduled for the top of January. It is going to be utilized by the French Air Power and Navy, particularly from the Charles de Gaulle plane service.
The Armement Air-Sol Modulaire (Modular Air-to-Floor Armament), generally referred to as AASM or HAMMER, is a French precision-guided munition developed by Safran Electronics & Protection. AASM contains a frontal steering package and a rear-mounted vary extension package matched to a dumb bomb. The fundamental model contains a 250-kilogram (550 lb) bomb plus hybrid inertial navigation system (INS) / International Positioning System (GPS) steering. The weapon is modular as a result of it will possibly combine several types of steering items and several types of bombs. In 2011, AASM was given the identify HAMMER (extremely agile modular munition prolonged vary). Chosen for business causes, the English acronym can also be typically utilized in French. The French pronunciation of “AASM” is Deux-A-S-M or A-deux-S-M.
Commercial
The present mannequin contains a 250 kg bomb matched to a nose-mounted steering package and a rear-mounted vary extension package, containing a rocket booster and enlarged fins. There may be additionally a 125 kg, first examined in 2009, and a proposed 1000 kg model. The AASM 1000 consists of a GPS and inertial steering package and a variety augmentation package. The latter, which makes use of a propellant, makes it potential to significantly lengthen the firing vary in comparison with a non-propellant ammunition. Each kits are straight derived from the newest model of the AASM 250, now tailored to suit 1,000 kg bombs. The AASM 250 ammunition (250 kg model), in service with the French Air Power since 2008, has been efficiently examined in fight in numerous theaters of operations.
The usual F4.1 Rafale fighter will be capable of carry as much as three AASM 1000 (one ventral and one beneath every wing). The event of the AASM 1000 ammunition was carried out with the energetic participation of technical consultants from the French Air and House Forces, the French Navy and the Service Commun de Munitions (SIMu), with a purpose to take into consideration the suggestions and wishes of the top customers as early as potential within the industrial work. The French Air Power and Navy armorers perform the meeting of the AASM 1000 and the parameterization of the ammunition in accordance with the mission necessities. This new model of the AASM is developed by Safran Electronics & Protection as a part of an 85 million euro contract awarded by the DGA in 2017.
