Skyflash

Skyflash
Prototype Panavia Tornado ADV aircraft with semi-recessed Skyflash missiles
Type	Medium-range air-to-air missile
Place of origin	United Kingdom
Service history
In service	1978–2006
Production history
Designer	Hawker Siddeley, Marconi Space & Defence Systems
Manufacturer	BAe Dynamics
Unit cost	£150,000 per missile
Specifications
Mass	193 kg (425 lb)
Length	3.68 m (12 ft 1 in)
Diameter	203 mm
Wingspan	1.02 m (3 ft 6 in)
Warhead	39.5 kg (87 lb)
Engine	Rocketdyne solid propellant rocket motor
Operational range	45 km (28 mi)
Maximum speed	Mach 4
Guidance system	Marconi inverse monopulse semi-active radar homing

The Skyflash, or Sky Flash in marketing material, was a medium-range semi-active radar homing air-to-air missile derived from the US AIM-7 Sparrow missile and carried by Royal Air Force McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantoms and Tornado F3s, Italian Aeronautica Militare and Royal Saudi Air Force Tornados and Swedish Flygvapnet Saab Viggens.

Skyflash replaced the original Raytheon conical scanning seeker with a Marconi inverse monopulse seeker that worked with the F-4's radar. Monopulse seekers are more accurate, less susceptible to jamming, and able to easily pick out targets at low altitudes. It offered significantly better performance than the original seeker, allowing British Aerospace to dispense with upgrades to the warhead that were carried out in the US to address poor accuracy.

Skyflash was tested in the US, but after trials against experimental monopulse seekers from Raytheon, the United States Navy elected to order a different monopulse-equipped version of the Sparrow, the AIM-7M. Both Skyflash and AIM-7M were later replaced by the more capable AMRAAM.