Aust. AF take 5 years to achive IOC with their AGM-142 Raptor
missiles -- 
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RAAF to declare new F-111 missile operational shortly
The Royal Australian Air Force will soon declare the Rafael AGM-142
Raptor air-ground missile operational. Two launch tests in July
using a General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark were successful, and two
more tests are scheduled in October. Clearing the test phase allows
the Israeli missile to become the main air-ground system of the
upgraded fighters.
Rafael supplied the missiles in 2000, but wing fatigue problems on
the F-111 delayed aircraft integration. Some of the missiles
delivered to the RAAF are armed with blast-fragmentation warheads
and others with penetration warheads. The Raptor is the advanced
version of the AGM-142 Popeye, the result of a product enhancement
programme (PEP). The missiles are fitted with an 8-12ยต
thermal-imaging seeker that has selectable wide and narrow field of
view (FOV) modes. Wide FOV is used to acquire the target and narrow
FOV for the terminal phase.
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