Raytheon [RTN] completed testing of its HARM Control Section Modification (HCSM) to its High-Speed Anti-Radiation Missile (HARM), according to a company statement.
The upgrades help HARMs be more precise and accurate while reducing collateral damage. The HCSM adds a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver and an improved inertial measurement unit (IMU) for precision navigation. HCSM also features a digital flight computer that merges targeting solutions from navigation and seeker systems. These enhancements improve the probability of a hit while controlling where the missile can, and cannot, fly.
Raytheon completed two flight tests of HCSM-modified HARMs. During an April 12 flight test, an F-16 aircraft fired a HCSM variant against an emitter that shut down while a similar threat outside the designated missile impact zone threatened to lure the missile off-target. The missile rejected this lure and successfully hit its primary target. During a May 3 test, an HCSM-modified HARM that was fired from an F-16 used GPS coordinates to engage, with high accuracy, a simulated, time-critical target, according to a company statement.
The HCSM program is an Air Force-led competition between Raytheon and ATK [ATK]. A winner for full rate production (FRP) is scheduled to be picked by the end of 2012, Raytheon said in a statement.
The HARM is designed to suppress or destroy surface-to-air missile radars, early warning radars and radar-directed air defense artillery systems, according to a company statement.
F-16s are developed by Lockheed Martin [LMT].