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R-77 is at best comparable to 120A, and that missile got dumped within a couple of years of production yielding its place to the 120B, and then successive variants of the 120C.


Yes, I agree, R-77 is inferior to most AMRAAMs. However, R-77 provides evidence that the Russians have the ability to produce operational ARH seekers, and could probably be used as a base for an ARH 48N6, unless there's something more fundamental about R-77 that I'm missing.

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The AMRAAM seeker was not 'bolted onto the SM-2ER'. The SM-6 seeker some form of derivative of the AMRAAM seeker, but it's not like you can take one right off the 120 and stick it onto an SM-6.


I was engaging in some minor hyperbole - you obviously can't swap around seekers like that. SM-6 does demonstrate that the sensor technology is not entirely orthogonal, though, in that an ARH AAM seeker system was developed into a ARC SAM seeker. Is there some difference between the AMRAAM seeker and the R-77 seeker that makes this easier for the former and more difficult for the latter?