Third party developer TrueGrit, working on the DCS: Typhoon (EF2000) project for DCS World, confirmed that the IRIS-T would be available for the DCS: Typhoon. Although in the grand scheme of announcements this may be small, it does indicate that TrueGrit is working on establishing a selection of relatively sophisticated armament options for the Eurofighter Typhoon in DCS World.

IRIS-T missile for Typhoon

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According to TrueGrit, IRIS-T will be the main missile for the DCS: Typhoon.

The IRIS-T is CONFIRMED for the Eurofighter Typhoon in DCS and will be your main heat seeker missile.

TrueGrit Virtual Technologies

This addition likely has come about thanks to TrueGrit’s industry connections and access to declassified data that provides enough details for Eagle Dynamics to include the missile in their growing inventory of air launched weapons.

The IRIS-T missile has also been used on Spanish F/A-18’s and Norwegian F-16’s which makes it slightly possible that this missile could see it’s way into other aircraft – although the specific variants of each might limit that possibility.

What is IRIS-T?

Analogous to the AIM-9X Sidewinder, the IRIS-T was launched as a part of several efforts to replace the common AIM-9L that was typically in service in the 1980’s and 1990’s. The IRIS-T was developed, in part because of the discover of how capable the East German AA-11/R-73 was and so the IRIS-T was developed to provide a superior short range missile.

According to the IRIS-T datasheet on Wikipedia, the missile has a 16 mile (25km) engagement distance (no doubt under ideal circumstances) and can reach a maximum speed of Mach 3. More interesting is the missile’s maneuverability that offers “extreme close-in agility allowing turns of 60 g at a rate of 60°/s via thrust vectoring.” (Source: Wikipedia)

The IRIS-T also offers the ability to engage targets from a rear aspect in relation to the launching aircraft thanks to the high maneuverability and has the ability to target small objects such as drones, missiles, as well as engage small ground vehicles. It’s unclear how many of these capabilities will be on display in DCS World.

I remain very excited to see the Typhoon come to DCS World.