Warheads may be interchanged. Late models of the AGM-142 now have provisions for adding a GPS receiver to the IMU, which would provide for high midcourse navigational accuracy in any extended range versions (using turbojet or longer burn rocket motors). Recent reports indicate that the RAAF now intend to use the AGM-142 also for anti-shipping strike. Compared to the established radar guided AGM-84 Harpoon, the AGM-142 has twice the warhead weight and thus killing power, as well the operator may select the most vulnerable aimpoint on the target vessel to maximise inflicted damage. The AGM-142 has similar range to the Harpoon when launched at altitude, but is supersonic and provides no warning of its approach to listening ESM as it uses a passive optical seeker (Artwork Carlo Kopp).

The early history of the Israeli Popeye is uncertain, but rumour has it that the weapon is a derivative of the cancelled US Navy Condor missile. The USAF's AGM-142 Raptor is a derivative of the Israeli Popeye weapon, with a moderate number of minor modifications intended to improve compatibility with USAF platforms and the USAF's logistical system. The weapon currently arms a fraction of the B-52 fleet and will be licence manufactured in the US in a joint venture by Israel's Rafael and Lockheed Martin.

The Rafael/Lockheed Martin AGM-142 Raptor is the USAF version of the Israeli Popeye missile, and has a range of minor modifications to suit the USAF. The missile weighs 3,000 lb at launch, has a range in excess of 50 NM when launched at altitude, and is extremely accurate with a thermal imaging seeker which datalinks a picture to the F-111 navigator's cockpit display. With an 800 lb blast frag warhead or penetrator, the missile is particularly lethal against high value targets such as air defence and command -control -communications sites.

During the late eighties the USAF sought a standoff missile for their B-52, to enable it to attack from outside the area defences of a target. The Rafael Popeye was then being introduced into IDF service on the F-4E, and the USAF in 1988 contracted Rafael and Boeing, the latter the authors of the B-52 offensive avionic system, to integrate the weapon with the B-52G and provide an initial supply of missiles, respectively. To date all USAF AGM-142 stocks have been supplied by Rafael, but future stocks will be supplied by the joint venture company, with some components manufactured in the US.

The missile was initially designated the Have Nap by the USAF, later redesignated the AGM-142, and recently renamed the AGM-142 Raptor. Some sources indicate that the weapon was blooded during the Gulf Campaign, and used to hit hard targets from outside Iraqi air defence coverage. The political circumstances of the period meant that the US has to date consistently denied the use of the weapon in the campaign.

The AGM-142 is a rocket propelled air to surface standoff missile, with inertial midcourse guidance and an electro-optical (TV or IIR) terminal seeker which relays a picture to the launch aircraft via a datalink. The weapon operator will then update the weapon's aimpoint using a datalink command channel from the launch aircraft, much like the GBU-15 (AGM-130) and Walleye glidebombs. The datalink equipment is carried in a weapon specific pod, as is the case with the GBU-15. The missile weighs approximately 3,000 lb, is 190" in length, 21" in diameter and has a wing span of 68".

The missile can be refitted on the flightline with either a daylight TV seeker, or a 8-12 micron band HgCdTe thermal imaging seeker. The seeker has selectable wide and narrow field of view modes, using an optical/mechanical selection mechanism. Wide FOV would be used initially to acquire the target, and narrow FOV then selected during the terminal phase of flight to allow the operator to precisely choose the aimpoint. The seeker is cooled by a closed cycle helium refrigerator powered off the missile's internal 28V DC rail.

Midcourse navigation is performed with an inertial measurement unit, built around three fibre-optic gyro (FOG) angular rate sensors and three mechanical accelerometers. The guidance system is built around an Intel 486 based processor module with up to 32 Megabyte of main memory, to provide for long term growth capability in the missile's software.

Missile control is provided by cruciform, hydraulically powered tail surfaces. While the typical arrangement for missile hydraulics uses a gas pressurised reservoir and discards fluid upon use, the Raptor uses a closed cycle system powered by an electrical hydraulic pump, in turn powered off the hydraulic system's 28VDC rail. The constant thrust solid rocket propellant engine has a burn duration in excess of two minutes.

With the existing powerplant, the weapon will fly at transonic or supersonic speeds, subject to mission profile. Ranges on various profiles are classified, but are in excess of fifty nautical miles for high altitude launches. The missile has an 800 lb warhead. Blast fragmentation or penetration casing versions may be fitted at depo level.

The weapon's datalink will transmit seeker video to the launch aircraft, and receive aimpoint update commands. The datalink pod will be carried beneath the lower fuselage of the launch aircraft, in the same location as the AXQ-14 datalink pod used for the GBU-15.

The Raptor will be used primarily to hit high value well defended targets such as command posts and bunkers, key air defence sites, early warning radar sites, strategically positioned SAM sites and critical infrastructure items. The weapon would be of particular value during the opening phase of an air campaign, as it would allow an air force to take down key nodes in the opponent's Command-Control-Communications network and Integrated Air Defence System. Once these are down, the IADS will collapse, allowing the use of cheaper munitions in most instances.

"This page is a condensed version of a technical feature by Carlo Kopp, first published in Australian Aviation December, 1996 issue.

(C) 1996, 1997, 1998 Carlo Kopp "