Repurposed air to. Air missiles

[chrisonord]

In my Honduras air force scenario, France along with several other countries supplied them a large number of Matra R. 530 missiles with the Mirage III and 5 aircraft. These missiles were as good as obsolete, but instead of scrapping them, they were handed over to a specialist company in the States to be  converted into anti radar missiles. Two distinct versions were produced, one version for the destruction of land based SAM radars, and the other to be used against seaborne radar. The missiles are big enough to carry a decent warhead for their specific tasks and fly quick enough. I have also thought about the conversion of Italian ASPEDE missiles too.

[Weaver]

That's totally credible. A SARH AAM is basically a passive radar receiver anyway: "all" you have to do is retune it to the enemy radar's frequency. The Shrike started out as a modified Sparrow, and the stock of AIM-9C radar Sidewinders were converted to SIDEARM anti-radar missiles. An Aspide has exactly the same airframe and systems as an AIM-7E Sparrow apart from it's Italian homing head, so that could certainly be converted.

On the subject of different versions, Shrike was made in TWENTY different versions, consisting of ten homing heads, each tuned to a different radar frequency, and two airframes with different motor and warhead options. If your "ARM.530" uses similar tech then it'll have to be made in a wide range of versions too, but if it uses later tech that can be retuned in flight, then you only need one version. The French AS.37 anti-radar version of MARTEL had a retunable homing head, but it could only be retuned on the ground, not in-flight.

[chrisonord]

Thankyou for the info H. My "Arm 530's, good name that will be physically distinquishable by their colours. Ground based targets get olive drab painted missiles and ship borne ones get painted off white. Simples    armour piercing warheads and blast fragmentation will be used also.

[jcf]

Thankyou for the info H. My "Arm 530's, good name that will be physically distinquishable by their colours. Ground based targets get olive drab painted missiles and ship borne ones get painted off white. Simples    armour piercing warheads and blast fragmentation will be used also.

Colour coding the warheads might
be a good idea. Perhaps bands or different coloured noses? Black for AP and red (or yellow) for HE?

[Weaver]

Remember that an ARM hitting a ship isn't going to hit the hull, it's going to explode amongst the radar aerials at mast height. What might work best is a blast/frag warhead, but with a smaller number of heavier penetrators wrapped around it than is typical, so that they punch through multiple decks and hopefully hit something important.