The

Matra Matra (an acronym for Mécanique Aviation Traction) was a major French industrial Conglomerate (company), conglomerate. Its business activities covered a wide range of industries, notably aerospace manufacturer, aerospace, defence industry, def ...

Super 530 is a French short to medium-range

air-to-air missile An air-to-air missile (AAM) is a missile fired from an aircraft for the purpose of destroying another aircraft (including unmanned aircraft such as cruise missiles). AAMs are typically powered by one or more rocket motors, usually solid-fuel roc ...

. The Super 530 series is an improved type of the R.530

missile A missile is an airborne ranged weapon capable of self-propelled flight aided usually by a propellant, jet engine or rocket motor. Historically, 'missile' referred to any projectile that is thrown, shot or propelled towards a target; this ...

. The Super 530F and Super 530D share the same general aerodynamic features and internal layout with cruciform low aspect ratio wings, cruciform aft controls, and 30 kg high explosive fragmentation warhead. However the 530D has a lengthened stainless steel body. This allows it to accommodate a more powerful dual-thrust solid propellant motor and a new seeker assembly. The new seeker includes doppler filtering for improved low altitude performance and digital micro-processing to enable the seeker to be reprogrammed against new threats. The 530D has a claimed maximum interception altitude of , with a snap-up capability of , and a snap-down capability to targets at . The missile has a range of 40 km and a maximum speed of less than Mach 5. Super 530F is carried on the

Dassault Mirage F1 The Dassault Mirage F1 is a French fighter and attack aircraft designed and manufactured by Dassault Aviation. It was developed as a successor to the Mirage III family. During the 1960s, Dassault commenced development of what would become t ...

which was introduced in 1979. Super 530D is carried on the

Dassault Mirage 2000 The Dassault Mirage 2000 is a French multirole, single-engine, delta wing, fourth-generation jet fighter manufactured by Dassault Aviation. It was designed in the late 1970s as a lightweight fighter to replace the Mirage III for the French Air ...

which was introduced in 1988. The Super 530 is being replaced by the

MICA Micas ( ) are a group of silicate minerals whose outstanding physical characteristic is that individual mica crystals can easily be split into fragile elastic plates. This characteristic is described as ''perfect basal cleavage''. Mica is co ...

missile.

Operational service

During the Iran-Iraq War, the

Iraqi Air Force The Iraqi Air Force (IQAF; ) is the aerial warfare service branch of the Iraqi Armed Forces. It is responsible for the defense of Iraqi airspace as well as the policing of its international borders. The IQAF also acts as a support force for t ...

used Super 530F missiles on their Mirage F1s against Iran. On 14 September 1983, in an incident that was revealed thirty years later, two Turkish F-100Fs violated Iraqi airspace and one was shot down by an Iraqi Mirage F1EQ firing a Super 530F missile. The Turkish pilots survived and returned to Turkey. On 15 July 2019, during a police operation in Northern Italy, a functioning Super 530F missile was seized together with firearms. The missile lacked the warhead. The weapons were smuggled by a group of people connected to far-right neo-fascist movements. The missile canister indicated it was originally sold to the Qatari armed forces. The original contract date with Qatar was October 1980. A Super 530 missile with a live warhead was discovered at Florida's

Lakeland Linder International Airport Lakeland Linder International Airport is a public airport five miles southwest of Lakeland, in Polk County, Florida. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2017–2021 categorized it as a na ...

on 14 August 2020 and had to be removed by explosive ordnance disposal specialists from the U.S. Air Force's 6th Civil Engineering Squadron at nearby

MacDill Air Force Base MacDill Air Force Base (MacDill AFB) is an active United States Air Force installation located 4 miles (6.4 km) south-southwest of downtown Tampa, Florida. The "host wing" for MacDill AFB is the 6th Air Refueling Wing (6 ARW), assig ...

. The missile had been inadvertently shipped to the U.S. defense contractor, Draken International, LLC, an airport tenant.

Operators

Current operators

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Former operators

* * * Super 530F * * * * *

Libya Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya border, the east, Sudan to Libya–Sudan border, the southeast, Chad to Chad–L ...

Similar weapons

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References

Super 530 Matra Military equipment introduced in the 1970s {{Missile-stub