Skyflash The British Aerospace Skyflash was a medium - range semi - active radar homing air - to - air missile derived from the US AIM - 7 Sparrow missile and carried by Royal Air Force F - 4 Phantoms and Tornado F3s , Italian Aeronautica Militare and Royal Saudi Air Force Tornados and Swedish Flygvapnet Viggens . The missile was replaced by the more capable AMRAAM . History . Skyflash came out of a British plan to develop an inverse monopulse seeker for the Sparrow AIM - 7E - 2 by GEC and the Royal Aircraft Establishment ( RAE ) at the end of the 1960s . Having shown this was feasible Air Staff Requirement 1219 was issued in January 1972 , with the project code XJ . 521 . The contractors were Hawker Siddeley and Marconi Space and Defence Systems ( the renamed GEC guided weapons division ) . Major changes from the Sparrow were the addition of a Marconi semi - active inverse monopulse radar seeker , improved electronics , adapted control surfaces and a Thorn EMI active radar fuze . The rocket motors used were the Bristol Aerojet Mk 52 mod 2 and the Rocketdyne Mk 38 mod 4 rocket motor ; the latest is the Aerojet Hoopoe . Tests of the resulting missile showed it could function successfully in hostile Electronic Countermeasures ( ECM ) environments and could engage targets under a wide variety of conditions . It could be launched from as low as 100 m to attack a high - altitude target or launched at high level to engage a target flying as low as 75 m . The missile entered service on the F - 4 Phantom II in 1978 as what was later called the 3000 Pre TEMP series ( Tornado Embodied Modification Package ) . In 1985 , these aircraft were replaced with the Panavia Tornado ADV . Both the Phantom and the Tornado carry the Skyflash in semi - recessed wells on the aircraft ' s underbelly to reduce drag . In the Tornado , however , Frazer - Nash hydraulic trapezes project the missile out into the slipstream prior to motor ignition . This widens the missile ' s firing envelope by ensuring that the launch is not affected by turbulence from the fuselage . Skyflash was therefore converted to the 5000 TEMP series to incorporate the Frazer - Nash recesses in the body of the missile , Launch Attitude Control electronics in the autopilot section and improved wing surfaces . The Tornado - Skyflash combination became operational in 1987 with the formation of the first Tornado F . 3 squadron . From 1988 a further modification ( 6000 series ) nicknamed " SuperTEMP " included the Hoopoe rocket motor to change the missile ' s flight profile from boost - and - glide ( with a 4 - second burn ) to boost - sustain - glide ( 7 - second burn ) , increasing its range and maneuverability . In RAF service the missiles are usually carried in conjunction with four short - range air - to - air missiles , either AIM - 9 Sidewinder s or ASRAAM s . A version with an active Thomson CSF - developed radar seeker and intertial mid - course update capability , Skyflash Mk 2 ( called Active Skyflash ) , was proposed for both the RAF and Sweden . British interest ended with the 1981 Defence Review ; British Aerospace ( BAe ) kept the proposal around until the early ' 90s but there were no buyers . Further advanced Sky Flash derivatives were studied under the code name S225X , and these studies became the basis for the MBDA Meteor . In 1996 the RAF announced the launch of the Capability Sustainment Programme which called for , among other things , the replacement of the Skyflash with the AIM - 120 AMRAAM . AMRAAM incorporates an active seeker with a strapdown inertial reference unit and computer system , giving it fire - and - forget capability . The first Tornado ADV F . 3 with limited AMRAAM capability entered service in 1998 . In 2002 , a further upgrade enabled full AMRAAM capability . The first mention of AMRAAM as a replacement for Skyflash dates back to 1986 .