[10] The fruit of a joint European project, Meteor missiles first entered service on the Swedish Air Force's JAS 39 Gripens in April 2016 and officially achieved initial operating capability (IOC) in July 2016.

Although no detailed performance requirements have been publicly released, they were understood to demand launch success and no-escape zones approaching twice that of the then "state-of-the-art" medium-range missile, AMRAAM.

The merger between Matra and BAE's missile businesses had stalled due to the French Government's reluctance to approve the deal without British assurances that the UK would adopt a more pro-European approach to procurement.

The results of the PDRR programme were expected in March 1998 but the procurement became ensnared in the run-up to and aftermath of the UK General Election in May 1997, as the new Labour government conducted its Strategic Defence Review.

[28] The UK MoD hosted a government-to-government level briefing on 14/15 July 1997 with Italy, Germany, and Sweden to discuss the BVRAAM programme and how it might meet their requirements, with the aim of pursuing a collaborative procurement.

[30] In response, DASA/LFK proposed a modified A3M, called Euraam, using a DASA Ulm K-band active seeker, with a passive receiver for stealthy engagements, and a redesigned Bayern Chemie propulsion system.

In September 1998, Raytheon supplied the UK with estimated costs for AIM-120B AMRAAMs to be fielded on Tornado and as an interim weapon on Eurofighter on initial entry into service while BVRAAM was still in development.

This approach played to perceived MoD budget limitations and a realisation that the main threat on which the SR(A)1239 requirement had been predicated, the advanced R-77 derivatives, did not look like entering development any time soon.

The Meteor team had considered an interim design, also powered by a dual-pulse solid rocket motor,[29] but decided to offer a fully compliant solution, believing that the staged approach was not cost-effective due to concerns that upgrading from one version to the next would be more complicated than Raytheon claimed.

At the 1999 Paris Air Show the French Defence Minister expressed his country's interest in joining the Meteor project, putting further pressure on the UK to use BVRAAM as a focus for the consolidation of the European guided weapons industry.

ERAAM+ would retain the ERAAM dual-pulse motor but fitted to a front end incorporating all the features of Phase 3 of the US Department of Defense's (DoD) AMRAAM Pre-Planned Product Improvement (P3I) programme, which was planned out to 2015.

[42] The ARC dual-pulse motor would not enable full compliance with the SR(A)1239 requirement, however it was believed to be adequate to counter the threats expected until 2012-15 when improvements to the warhead, datalink, and propulsion would be available.

[48] Last minute intervention by the UK Treasury delayed the decision, after concerns about the cost of Meteor, believed to be the preferred solution, compared to the cheaper incremental approach offered by Raytheon.

The British House of Commons Defence Select Committee summarised the reasons behind the decision in its Tenth Report: "The Meteor missile has some clear advantages over its Raytheon competitor—it appears to offer the more militarily effective solution; it should help rationalise and consolidate the European missile industry, and provide future competitions with a counterweight to US dominance in this field; and it entails a lower risk of constraints on Eurofighter exports.

Although the programme is in its early days, it also offers the prospect of avoiding some of the problems that have plagued other European procurement collaborations, without arbitrary workshare divisions and with a clear project leadership role to be provided by the UK.

The MoD needs to take advantage of that leadership role to keep momentum behind the project, including an early contract which will lock-in not just the contractor but also the commitments of our international partners.

Germany's financial contribution to the programme was considered essential but for more than two years development was hamstrung by the repeated failure of the German defence budget committee to approve funding.

During this gap in the programme MBDA was funding Meteor from its own resources and, by June 2002, had spent around £70m - most of which had gone, ironically, to Bayern-Chemie to reduce technical risk in the propulsion system, the performance of which was critical to meeting the requirements.

Germany had set two conditions for participation in the project: that the UK should place a contract for the weapon; and that MBDA give a guaranteed level of performance, both of which were achieved by 30 April 2002.

The fin actuation subsystem (FAS) was originally designed and manufactured by the Claverham Group, a UK based division of the US company Hamilton Sundstrand.

On 19 November 1996 Bayern-Chemie completed the latest in a series of tests designed to assess the attenuation of signals by the boron rich exhaust plume of the TDR, a concern highlighted by opponents of this form of ramjet propulsion.

The IJPO report to the UK Chief of Defence Procurement, the executive board of the DPA, and to an International Steering Committee comprising a one or two star representative from each partner nation's air force.

The prime-contractor, MBDA, will manage and execute the programme through its operating companies in France, Italy, and the UK, working with Bayern-Chemie/Protac in Germany, Inmize Sistemas SL in Spain, and Saab Bofors Dynamics in Sweden.

At the 2003 Paris Air Show MBDA signed a contract with Bayern-Chemie/Protac worth in excess of EUR250m, for development, first lot production, and integrated logistics for the Meteor PSS.

These would comprise a full end-to-end demonstration of the complete propulsion system at representative supersonic free flight conditions as a risk reduction exercise for the ALD firings, scheduled for the last quarter of 2005.

Around twenty catapult launches and full deck arrests were undertaken, along with a number of touch and go landings on the fightdeck to provide a fully comprehensive handling test of the aircraft while fitted with Meteor.

[86] On 13 December a separate campaign commenced in Sweden with flights of the Meteor avionics missile (GMA5) carried on the port wing outboard station of Gripen aircraft 39.101, which had been modified with Meteor-unique software.

[94] On 21 April 2017, the UK government signed a £41 million contract with MBDA to integrate Meteor on Royal Air Force Eurofighter Typhoons and the F-35B Lightning IIs.

[97] On 30 August 2022, Saab announced its first firing of the MBDA Meteor with an Gripen E, at an altitude of 16,500 ft over the Vidsel Test Range in northern Sweden “in late May/early June”.

[107][108] According to the Japanese Ministry of Defense, the seeker will be made of gallium nitride modules to reconcile both miniaturization and performance enhancement and planned to carry out the first launch test with a British fighter jet by 2023.