Venegono Superiore, Italy 04 August 2014
Finmeccanica-Alenia Aermacchi has confirmed on August 4th that the first phase of tests for the integration of the Storm Shadow long-range missile onto the Eurofighter Typhoon has been completed.
Storm Shadow is a long range, all-weather, high precision, stand-off weapon already in service on Royal Air Force Tornados. The stealthy weapon design allows it to penetrate layered air defences whilst the long range of Storm Shadow allows it to be launched outside those defences increasing the launch aircraft survivability.
In the deep attack role Eurofighter Typhoon will carry two Storm Shadow missiles whilst maintaining the ability to carry 8 air-air missiles. This will enable Eurofighter Typhoon to fight its way in and out of the combat area.
The tests have already covered a number of aspects of aeromechanical missile integration onto the aircaft and further flight trials are planned as the programme moves through to full integration. Avionic flights will then be performed to test funtional integration including dedicated missile release tests.