Aster (missile family)

The Aster missile family is a Franco-Italian family of all-weather, vertically launched surface-to-air and anti-ballistic missiles, developed jointly by France and Italy through the Eurosam consortium of MBDA France, MBDA Italy and Thales, and in service since 2001. It comprises two main variants sharing an identical missile body with different sized boosters, the shorter range Aster 15, effective under thirty kilometers, and the longer range Aster 30, effective under one hundred twenty kilometers. Guidance combines inertial navigation with in-flight updates and active radar homing in the terminal phase, and the family is intended to intercept combat aircraft, drones, helicopters, cruise missiles and supersonic anti-ship missiles. The Aster 30 Block 1 variant adds an anti-ballistic missile capability against short range ballistic missiles, and the system demonstrated an interception of a supersonic sea-skimming target in 2012. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/