December 1, 2007:
The Spanish
Air Force has received the first two, of 43, TAURUS KEPD 350 cruise missiles,
to be used on its 96 F-18 fighters. The TAURUS KEPD 350 is a stealthy 16 foot long missile weighing 1.4 tons. It's
top speed is about 900 kilometers an hour and it has a range of nearly 1,000
kilometers. It carries a half ton warhead. It uses inertial guidance, terrain
matching and GPS for navigation. For uses a high resolution infrared (heat
sensing) radar to positively identify and hit the target (using a 3-D model of
the target in its computer memory.) It can just use GPS to hit a target as
well. Spain is the first export user of the TAURUS KEPD 350, but the European
(German/Swedish) manufacturer expects to make sales to many users of the Eurofighter as well.