USNA Professional Competency Board (PCB) Practice Test

The key idea here is that the AIM-120 AMRAAM is designed for beyond-visual-range air-to-air engagements. It’s an air-to-air missile with an onboard active radar seeker, which allows it to guide itself to a target after launch (fire-and-forget in the terminal phase). This enables you to launch from a distance outside the opponent’s visual range and not rely on continuous radar illumination from the firing aircraft. It isn’t intended for air-to-ground missions, and it’s not a tool for within-visual-range dogfights that require the launch aircraft’s guidance or for surface-to-air defense.