Design and development
A joint development project between Hughes Aircraft and the United States Navy, the Brazo missile (named as a pun by one of the project's Navy developers, a Hispanic and Latino Americans, Hispanic; "Brazo" is Spanish for "Arm", the acronym for an Anti-Radiation Missile) project was initiated in 1972, as a proof-of-concept demonstration of the utility of an air-to-air, anti-radar missile.Parsch 2003 In 1973, the United States Air Force's Pave Arm project, a program with similar goals, was merged into the Brazo program, with the Air Force assuming responsibility for testing the missile.Friedman 1982, p.179. The first air-to-air anti-radiation missile developed by the United States,Morison and Rowe 1975, p.282. the Brazo utilised the airframe of the existing AIM-7E Sparrow air-to-air missile, fitted with a new, Hughes-built passive radar seeker head developed by the Naval Electronics Center. The seeker was intended to detect and home on enemy radar emissions, such as those on interceptor and Airborne early warning and control, AWACS aircraft.Operational history
The first test firing of the Brazo missile was conducted in April 1974, with the missile, launched from a USAF F-4D Phantom II, successfully shooting down a BQM-34 Firebee drone; four follow-up tests over the following year continued the missile's successful record, with none of the test shots failing despite difficult test conditions. However, despite the Brazo's success, the follow-on ERASE (Electro-magnetic RAdiation Source Elimination) project was cancelled, and no air-to-air antiradiation missiles would enter service in the West.Sweetman 1987, p.160.See also
* R-27 (air-to-air missile)References
Notes
Bibliography
* * * * * * * * {{US missiles Proposed weapons of the United States Anti-radiation missiles of the United States Abandoned military rocket and missile projects of the United States