AIM-120 AMRAAM - Operational History

Operational History

The AMRAAM was used for the first time on 27 December 1992, when a USAF F-16D shot down an Iraqi MiG-25 that violated the southern no-fly-zone. Interestingly enough, this missile was returned from the flight line as defective a day earlier. AMRAAM gained a second victory in January 1993 when an Iraqi MiG-23 was shot down by a USAF F-16C.

The third combat use of the AMRAAM was in 1994, when a Republika Srpska Air Force J-21 Jastreb aircraft was shot down by a USAF F-16C that was patrolling the UN-imposed no-fly-zone over Bosnia. In that engagement at least 3 other Serbian aircraft were shot down by USAF F-16C fighters using AIM-9 missiles (see Banja Luka incident for more details). At that point three launches in combat resulted in three kills, resulting in the AMRAAM being informally named "slammer" in the second half of the 1990s.

In 1998 and 1999 AMRAAMs were again fired by USAF F-15 fighters at Iraqi aircraft violating the No-Fly-Zone, but this time they failed to hit their targets. During the spring of 1999, AMRAAMs saw their main combat action during Operation Allied Force, the Kosovo bombing campaign. Six Serbian MiG-29 were shot down by NATO (4 USAF F-15C, 1 USAF F-16C, 1 Dutch F-16A MLU), all of them using AIM-120 missiles (the kill by the F-16C may have happened due to friendly fire, from SA-7 MANPAD fired by Serbian infantry).

As of mid 2008, the AIM-120 AMRAAM has shot down nine aircraft (six MiG-29s, one MiG-25, one MiG-23, and one Soko J-21 Jastreb). An AMRAAM was also involved in a friendly-fire incident in 1994 when F-15 fighters patrolling the Northern No-Fly Zone inadvertently shot down a pair of U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopters.

Since 2007 Raytheon has continued to slip on AMRAAM deliveries, leading the USAF to withhold $621 million in 2012 on account of 193 missiles not delivered.