Aasm goes IIR.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Although the DGA's the event took place on 12 July, the announcement that it had performed a test of the Sagem Aasm equipped with an imaging infrared seeker in addition to the weapon's current global positioning system came too late for inclusion in our feature article air-to-ground missiles in our last issue (see Better than Bombs, page 60, Armada 4/2007). As indicated in our Paris Air Show report in this issue, the existing Aasm's accuracy was already quite satisfactory, however, this accuracy is dependant on the GPS coordinates that are fed into the weapon. As Sagem explained, target data are usually provided by 'external' means such as forward observers or drones operating from a distance so cannot provide metric precision. The additional imaging infrared sensor cuts in during the final seconds before impact and allows the missile to adjust its aiming to achieve this level of accuracy.