Beyond-visual-range missile

Newer fire-and-forget type missiles like the Raytheon AIM-120 AMRAAM and the Russian R-77 (NATO reporting name AA-12 "Adder") instead use an inertial navigation system (INS) combined with initial target information from the launching aircraft and updates from a one or two-way data link in order to launch beyond visual range, and then switch to a terminal homing mode, typically active radar guidance.

These types of missiles have the advantage of not requiring the launching aircraft to illuminate the target with radar energy for the entire flight of the missile, and in fact do not require a radar lock to launch at all, only target tracking information.

This type of missile requires active guidance for a longer part of the flight than fire-and-forget missiles but will still guide to the target even if radar lock is broken in the crucial final seconds of the engagement and may be harder to spoof with chaff due to the dual-type guidance.

A 2005 paper by USAF officer Patrick Higby showed that BVR missiles fell short of expected performance, despite incurring great cost.

[5] The increased success rate of BVR combat during 1991 Gulf War may have significantly depended on other factors, such as assistance of AWACS, NCTR system of F-15Cs, as well as enemy incompetence.

None of the Iraqi pilots took any evasive measures, either because of poor training or their radar warning receivers malfunctioned.

In 2015, United States Naval Air Forces commander Vice Admiral Mike Shoemaker cited the sensor fusion of the fifth-generation jet fighter Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II as the way to "bring that long-range ID capability and then share that information" with other platforms.

Mitsubishi AAM-4 was the first BVR missile to utilize an AESA based active radar homing . [ 1 ]
Swedish Air Force JA37 Viggen with a pair of semi-active radar homing underwing Skyflash missiles.
First successful test of AIM-120 AMRAAM at the White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico 1982.
Active radar seeker Head of Vympel R-77 at 2009 MAKS Airshow .
A Chengdu J-20 with four PL-15 long range BVR missiles inside the weapons bay. One visible PL-10 is a short-range air-to air-missile.