[Defense Column] The Air Force's First Forward-Deployed Air-to-Ground Missile Still in Position

[Monthly Defense Times Editor-in-Chief An Seung-beom] The AGM-142 Pop Eye air-to-ground missile is mounted and operated on the F-4E fighter jets of the Republic of Korea Air Force and the Turkish Air Force. This missile is the first stand-off medium-range air-to-ground missile introduced by the Republic of Korea Air Force, and depending on the method of operation, it can also be used as a high-diving anti-ship missile. The AGM-142 missile is operated exclusively on the F-4E Phantom fighters of the Air Force’s 10th Fighter Wing.

This missile combines inertial navigation guidance with TVM (Track Via Missile) guidance. Inertial navigation guidance is used until the terminal guidance phase, and during the terminal guidance phase, the AGM-142 Pop Eye missile uses an onboard data link system and a separately mounted guidance data link pod on the fighter’s main wing weapon station to perform TVM guidance between the Pop Eye missile and the launch platform, allowing it to strike the target.

During this process, the missile’s electro-optical/infrared imaging seeker acquires video information, which is controlled by the rear-seat Weapon Systems Officer (WSO) or the pilot of the F-4E Phantom fighter.

Before takeoff, mission planning information is input into the missile, including the target’s coordinate data. Based on the coordinate information uploaded to the guidance unit and the currently calculated navigation data, the missile autonomously determines its flight path.

The Pop Eye’s range is generally known to be around 80 km, but when launched from high altitude and with a simplified flight path during mission planning, it can attack targets up to a range of 100 km.

The AGM-142A, mass-produced since 1989, is the initial version of the Pop Eye missile, equipped with a 750-pound blast-fragmentation warhead and an electro-optical seeker. Because this missile uses a blast warhead and a contact fuze (FMU-124C/B), it lacks penetration capability, and the electro-optical seeker is difficult to use at night, in bad weather, or in environments with severe desert sandstorms.

Therefore, the EO seeker of the AGM-142A was replaced, and the warhead was also replaced with the I-800 penetrator warhead. The version with the seeker replaced by an IIR seeker is the AGM-142B, the version with the warhead replaced by the I-800 is the AGM-142C, and the version with both replaced is classified as the AGM-142D. Since the Pop Eye’s warhead and seeker are modular, they can be easily replaced and interchanged. The Pop Eye missiles introduced to the Republic of Korea Air Force are also divided into two types according to the seeker type (IIR seeker and CCD seeker), known as the AGM-142G/H variants.

The Republic of Korea Air Force’s F-4E Phantom fighters are scheduled to retire between the end of 2023 and 2024, with one squadron operating at Suwon Air Base. As the F-4E Phantom fighters retire, the use of the AGM-142 air-to-ground missile will also cease. It is not yet decided whether the AGM-142 air-to-ground missiles, introduced around 2000, will be discarded or sold as used equipment to Turkey. If their condition is good, selling them as used equipment is possible.

A Korean medium-range air-to-ground missile is being developed as a successor to the AGM-142 and is planned to be operated on the FA-50 fighter jet.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.