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74-503: The Skyflash , or Sky Flash in marketing material, 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 McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantoms and Tornado F3s , Italian Aeronautica Militare and Royal Saudi Air Force Tornados and Swedish Flygvapnet Saab Viggens . Skyflash replaced the original Raytheon conical scanning seeker with

148-498: A Marconi inverse monopulse seeker that worked with the F-4's radar. Monopulse seekers are more accurate, less susceptible to jamming, and able to easily pick out targets at low altitudes. It offered significantly better performance than the original seeker, allowing British Aerospace to dispense with upgrades to the warhead that were carried out in the US to address poor accuracy. Skyflash

222-572: A SARH (semi-active radar homing) variant (AIM-9C) and an IR (AIM-9D) in 1963. The AIM-9C's semi-active radar was exclusively tied to the F-8 Crusader 's radar and fire control system (FCS). A total of around 1,000 AIM-9C missiles were launched from 1965 to 1967, but their usage in Vietnam war proved unsuccessful, downing no enemies. A filter modification program for reworked units (to allow high altitude capability up to 18,288m (60,000 feet) This

296-614: 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

370-597: A reverse-engineered copy of the AIM-9B, was also widely adopted. Low-level development started in the late 1940s, emerging in the early 1950s as a guidance system for the modular Zuni rocket . This modularity allowed for the introduction of newer seekers and rocket motors, including the AIM-9C variant, which used semi-active radar homing and served as the basis of the AGM-122 Sidearm anti-radar missile . Due to

444-482: A solid rocket motor for propulsion, similar to most conventional missiles, a continuous-rod fragmentation warhead , and an infrared seeker . The seeker tracks a difference in temperatures detected and uses proportional guidance to achieve impact. Older variants such as the AIM-9B with uncooled seeker heads could only track the high temperatures of engine exhaust , making them strictly rear aspect. Later variants, however, featured liquid nitrogen coolant bottles in

518-721: A contract to support Sidewinder operations through to 2055. Air Force spokeswoman Stephanie Powell said that its relatively low cost, versatility, and reliability mean it is "very possible that the Sidewinder will remain in Air Force inventories through the late 21st century". The AIM-9 was a product of the US Naval Weapons Center at China Lake in the Mojave Desert . It features a lightweight, compact design with cruciform canards and tail fins. It uses

592-490: A fault prevents datalink self-destruct signals when a missile is heading in the wrong direction. Most coastlines are heavily populated, so this risk exists at test centers for sea-based systems that are near the coastlines: The combat record of U.S. SARH missiles was unimpressive during the Vietnam War . USAF and US Navy fighters armed with AIM-7 Sparrow attained a success rate of barely 10%, which tended to amplify

666-529: A heat-homing rocket. The name Sidewinder was selected in 1950 and is the common name of Crotalus cerastes , a rattlesnake , which uses infrared sensory organs to hunt warm-blooded prey. It did not receive official funding until 1951 when the effort was mature enough to show to Admiral William "Deak" Parsons , the Deputy Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance (BuOrd). It subsequently received designation as

740-480: A high-altitude target or launched at high level to engage a target flying as low as 75 m. In testing, it repeatedly intercepted target drones at 1,000 ft altitude, the minimum altitude that the tracking cameras could be set to. The missile entered service on the F-4 Phantom in 1978 as what was later called the 3000 Pre TEMP series (Tornado Embodied Modification Package). In 1985, these aircraft were replaced with

814-657: A new nose dome and superior optical filtering. Conversions were done to European AIM-9B to upgrade them to the FGW.2 standard. The official designation is the AIM-9B FGW.2 but it is known as the AIM-9F in US nomenclature. The AIM-9G was very similar to the AIM-9D in most aspects, and did not differ externally. The AIM-9G was an AIM-9D that used an improved AIM-9D seeker head with SEAM (Sidewinder Extended Acquisition Mode), this allowed

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888-642: A program in 1952. Originally called the Sidewinder 1 , the first live firing was on 3 September 1952. The missile intercepted a drone for the first time on 11 September 1953. The missile carried out 51 guided flights in 1954, and in 1955 production was authorized. In 1954, the US Air Force carried out trials with the original AIM-9A and the improved AIM-9B at the Holloman Air Development Center. The first operational use of

962-484: A radio proximity fuze could be used. These improvements were all added into AIM-9D and went into service with the USN. Around 1,000 AIM-9D units were produced from 1965 to 1969. The primary problem of the AIM-9D was breakup during launch. The AIM-9D was eventually developed into AIM-9G. ATM-9D (USN) : AIM-9D used for captive flight target acquisition training. GDU-1/B : AIM-9D used for firing practice. The AIM-9E "Echo"

1036-464: A replacement for Skyflash dates back to 1986. Semi-active radar homing The NATO brevity code for a semi-active radar homing missile launch is Fox One . The basic concept of SARH is that since almost all detection and tracking systems consist of a radar system, duplicating this hardware on the missile itself is redundant. The weight of a transmitter reduces the range of any flying object, so passive systems have greater reach. In addition,

1110-420: A spinning disk with lines painted on it, alternately known as a "reticle" or "chopper". The reticle spun at a fixed speed, causing the output of the photocell to be interrupted in a pattern, and the precise timing of the resulting signal indicated the bearing of the target. Although Hamburg and similar devices like Madrid were essentially complete, the work of mating them to a missile had not been carried out by

1184-876: A wide variety of missile projects were underway, from huge systems like the Bell Bomi rocket-powered bomber to small systems like air-to-air missiles. By the early 1950s, both the US Air Force and Royal Air Force had started major IR seeker missile projects. The development of the Sidewinder missile began in 1946 at the Naval Ordnance Test Station (NOTS), Inyokern, California, now the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake , as an in-house research project conceived by William B. McLean . McLean initially called his effort "Local Fuze Project 602" using laboratory funding, volunteer help and fuze funding to develop what they called

1258-464: A wider pattern. Modern SARH systems use continuous-wave radar (CW radar) for guidance. Even though most modern fighter radars are pulse Doppler sets, most have a CW function to guide radar missiles. A few Soviet aircraft, such as some versions of the MiG-23 and MiG-27 , used an auxiliary guidance pod or aerial to provide a CW signal. The Vympel R-33 AA missile for MiG-31 interceptor uses SARH as

1332-637: Is a commonly used modern missile guidance methodology, used in multiple missile systems, such as: AIM-9 Sidewinder The AIM-9 Sidewinder ("AIM" for "Air Interception Missile") is a short-range air-to-air missile . Entering service with the United States Navy in 1956 and the Air Force in 1964, the AIM-9 is one of the oldest, cheapest, and most successful air-to-air missiles. Its latest variants remain standard equipment in most Western-aligned air forces. The Soviet K-13 (AA-2 "Atoll"),

1406-474: Is a very limited weapon, but it had no serious competitors and counters when it was introduced, causing it to be adopted by the USAF and NATO as a standard weapon, with around 80,000 units being produced from 1958 to 1962. The viewing angle of the AIM-9B's sensor was a minuscule 4 degrees, So at launch, the pilot had to accurately aim the aircraft's sight over or above the target (to account for drag). The speed of

1480-525: Is increased in SARH systems using navigation data in the homing vehicle to increase the travel distance before antenna tracking is needed for terminal guidance. Navigation relies on acceleration data , gyroscopic data , and global positioning data . This maximizes distance by minimizing corrective maneuvers that waste flight energy. Contrast this with beam riding systems, like the RIM-8 Talos , in which

1554-581: Is more accurate and somewhat more resistant to countermeasures. The new rocket motor burns longer and the redesigned body makes the R-13M more maneuverable. K-13M1/R-13M1 : Improved R-13M with new forward fins introduced in 1976. The lackluster performance of the AIM-9B caused the Navy to look for successor. And in 1963 the AAM-N-7 Sidewinder IC was designed, It was developed in two variations:

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1628-514: The AIM-95 Agile and SRAAM that were intended to replace it. The Sidewinder is the most widely used air-to-air missile in the West, with more than 110,000 missiles produced for the U.S. and 27 other nations, of which perhaps one percent have been used in combat. It has been built under license by Sweden and other nations. The AIM-9 has an estimated 270 aircraft kills. In 2010, Boeing won

1702-643: The Panavia Tornado ADV . Both the Phantom and the Tornado carried the Skyflash in semi-recessed wells on the aircraft's underbelly to reduce drag. In the Tornado, however, Frazer-Nash hydraulic trapezes projected the missile out into the slipstream prior to motor ignition. This widened the missile's firing envelope by ensuring that the launch was not affected by turbulence from the fuselage. Skyflash

1776-669: 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 & Defence Systems (the renamed GEC guided weapons division) at Stanmore . Major changes from the Sparrow were the addition of a Marconi semi-active inverse monopulse radar seeker, improved electronics, adapted control surfaces and

1850-418: The conical scan was very slow, additionally, the uncooled missile had a low sensitivity and was liable to extraneous heat. The AIM-9B was recommended for use on non-threatening targets (like bombers), only from behind (so it can lock on the thermal radiation from the target engines) and only with the sun behind or to the side of your aircraft (as the missile would lock onto it due to its thermal radiation). It

1924-413: The resolution of a radar is strongly related to the physical size of the antenna, and in the small nose cone of a missile there isn't enough room to provide the sort of accuracy needed for guidance. Instead the larger radar dish on the ground or launch aircraft will provide the needed signal and tracking logic, and the missile simply has to listen to the signal reflected from the target and point itself in

1998-561: The AIM-9B, but is worse than the "D". The canard design was changed to a squared tip double delta planform, this helped improve canard behaviour at higher angles of attack (AOA). Over 5,000 AIM-9B's were rebuilt into AIM-9E's. The AIM-9E appeared in Vietnam after the conclusion of the Operation Rolling Thunder in 1968, with the U.S. Air Force (USAF), becoming one of their main missile armaments. Up until Operation Linebacker in 1972 intense air-to-air activity in Vietnam

2072-593: 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

2146-487: The Navy opted for a different approach after Walt Freitag, a USN engineer proposed a full change to solid-state in one missile. The "H" variant had major changes over the AIM-9D/G, which had multiple issues with reliability. One of the issues was the intolerance of the vacuum tubes to repeated 20ft/sec sink rate landings by US Navy aircraft on carrier decks. The "H" was the first Sidewinder to be fully solid state, replacing

2220-599: The Sidewinder's infrared guidance system, the brevity code " Fox two " is used when firing the AIM-9. Originally a tail-chasing system, early models saw extensive use during the Vietnam War , but had a low success rate (8% hit rate with the AIM-9E variant). This led to all-aspect capability in the L (Lima) version, which proved an effective weapon during the 1982 Falklands War and Operation Mole Cricket 19 in Lebanon. Its adaptability has kept it in service over newer designs like

2294-599: The Sparrow at beyond visual range . Similar performance has been achieved with the sea-launched RIM-7 Sea Sparrow . Soviet systems using SARH have achieved a number of notable successes, notably in the Yom Kippur War , where 2K12 Kub (NATO name SA-6) tactical SAM systems were able to effectively deny airspace to the Israeli Air Force . A 2K12 also shot down a U.S. F-16 in the Bosnian War. SARH

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2368-652: The Taiwan strait resulted in a AIM-9B becoming lodged in a MiG-17 without exploding, allowing it to be removed after landing. The Soviets later became aware that the Chinese had at least one Sidewinder, and after some wrangling, were able to persuade the Chinese to send them one of the captured missiles. K-13/R-3 (AA-2) Variants : K-13/R-3 (Object 300) (AA-2 Atoll): It was the standard variant and entered limited service only two years later in 1960. K-13A/R-3S (Object 310) (AA-2A Atoll) : This entered service in 1962. The R-3S

2442-404: The aircraft, rendering it inoperable. The continuous rod warhead features rods welded together to form a cylindrical outer shell, with explosive filler inside. Upon detonation, the rods are scattered in a toroidal shape, ensuring that at least some portion of the shrapnel hits enemy aircraft. Newer models of the AIM-9 sought to increase the range that the seeker head's gimbal can turn, allowing

2516-446: The amount of energy devoted to actuating control surfaces, the AIM-9 does not use active roll stabilization. Instead, it uses rollerons , small metal discs protruding out of the aft end of the tips of the tail fins which spin as the missile flies through the air, providing gyroscopic stabilization. The AIM-9 uses a passive infrared proximity fuze to detonate its warhead near an enemy aircraft, scattering shrapnel that aims to damage

2590-408: The antenna. This steers the body of the missile to hold the target near the centerline of the antenna while the antenna is held in a fixed position. The offset angle geometry is determined by flight dynamics using missile speed, target speed, and separation distance. Techniques are nearly identical using jamming signals , optical guidance video, and infra-red radiation for homing. Maximum range

2664-530: The beam riding system is not accurate at long ranges, while SARH is largely independent of range and grows more accurate as it approaches the target, or the source of the reflected signal it listens for. Reduced accuracy means the missile must use a very large warhead to be effective (i.e.: nuclear). Another requirement is that a beam riding system must accurately track the target at high speeds, typically requiring one radar for tracking and another "tighter" beam for guidance. The SARH system needs only one radar set to

2738-458: The bottom of the diagram (spectrum). Antenna offset angle of the missile antenna is set after the target is acquired by the missile seeker using the spectrum location set using closing speed. The missile seeker antenna is a monopulse radar receiver that produces angle error measurements using that fixed position. Flight path is controlled by producing navigation input to the steering system (tail fins or gimbaled rocket) using angle errors produced by

2812-620: The designation AIM-9E-2 As the Sidewinder was being acquired by NATO forces, licensed production was given to West Germany and they would produce around 15,000 units. Like the Americans, the West Germans sought to improve the AIM-9B design due to its limitations. The only visible exterior difference is a greenish sensor window, but many tech improvements were added beneath the shell. Unnoticed improvements include solid state electronics (instead of vacuum tubes), carbon dioxide seeker cooling,

2886-529: The early AIM-9A & B was that a non-propulsive attachment (NPA) for their MK 15 motor was provided, assuming an assembled missile would be less dangerous to ground crew and material if the rocket motor was ignited. This same NPA was used in the AIM-9B Sidewinder as well. The AIM-9B is very similar to the AIM-9A, but the "B" has a more sophisticated rear and more aerodynamical front fins. The AIM-9B

2960-420: The effect of removing the gun on most F-4 Phantoms , which carried 4 Sparrows. While some of the failures were attributable to mechanical failure of 1960s-era electronics, which could be disturbed by pulling a cart over uneven pavement, or pilot error; the intrinsic accuracy of these weapons was low relative to Sidewinder and guns. Since Desert Storm , most F-15 Eagle combat victories have been scored with

3034-539: The final attack. This can keep the target from realising it is under attack until shortly before the missile strikes. Since the missile only requires guidance during the terminal phase, each radar emitter can be used to engage more targets. Some of these weapons, like the SM-2, allow the firing platform to update the missile with mid-course updates via datalink . Some of the more effective methods used to defeat semi-active homing radar are flying techniques. These depend upon

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3108-472: The internal wiring harnesses. These improvements facilitated a better 100 Hz reticle rate, and a 16.5 deg/sec tracking rate. The most significant design change was the addition of cooling for the PbS detector, adding Peltier (thermoelectric) cooling, giving the advantage of unlimited cooling when positioned on the launch rail, but is only active when electrical power is present. The AIM-9E gives greater range over

3182-400: The last sighting. So if the target remained at 5 degrees left between two rotations of the mirror, the electronics would not output any signal to the control system. Consider a missile fired at right angles to its target; if the missile is flying at the same speed as the target, it should "lead" it by 45 degrees, flying to an impact point far in front of where the target was when it was fired. If

3256-453: The launch aircraft vulnerable to counterattack, as well as giving the target's electronic warning systems time to detect the attack and engage countermeasures. Because most SARH missiles require guidance during their entire flight, older radars are limited to one target per radar emitter at a time. The maximum range of a SARH system is determined by energy density of the transmitter. Increasing transmit power can increase energy density. Reducing

3330-597: The launcher, which the USAF did not use) ATM-9G (USN) : AIM-9G used for captive flight target acquisition training. Within December 1965, two designers McLean and LaBerge (who were employed by Philco-Ford) came together to create ways to improve the AIM-9G's reliability. One submission was to advance all the remaining missile electronic components from vacuum to solid-state gradually.The US Air Force adhered to this steady replacement of their AIM-9's to solid-state, however

3404-480: The launchers, allowing the missile to track any part of the aircraft heated by air resistance due to high speed flight, giving modern Sidewinders all-aspect capabilities. The nose canards provide maneuverability for the AIM-9, with the AIM-9X using thrust vectoring to augment this. The hot gases generated were used to actuate the nose canards in older models, while newer variants use thermal batteries . To minimize

3478-528: The little-used US Navy AIM-9C Sidewinder. This took longer to develop, and did not enter service until 1966. K-13M/R-13M (Object 380) (AA-2D Atoll) : The R-13M is a much improved version of the R-3S and has capabilities similar to the AIM-9G Sidewinder. The R-13M is still a tail engagement missile only but is far more capable than the R-3S due to its new seeker and rocket motor. The new cooled seeker

3552-399: The main type of guidance (with supplement of inertial guidance on initial stage). SARH missiles require tracking radar to acquire the target, and a more narrowly focused illuminator radar to "light up" the target in order for the missile to lock on to the radar return reflected off target. The target must remain illuminated for the entire duration of the missile's flight. This could leave

3626-422: The missile automatically got pre-launch instructions. The conical scanning speed was also increased greatly. The seeker head was now able to seek in a 25˚ circular scan. This allowed the AIM-9G to have an improved chance of acquiring the target than earlier models. This, along with other upgraded solid-state modules, culminated in the AIM-9G. The improvement was substantial enough that an order of 5,000 AIM-9D seekers

3700-506: The missile is traveling four times the speed of the target, it should follow an angle about 11 degrees in front. In either case, the missile should keep that angle all the way to interception, which means that the angle that the target makes against the detector is constant. It was this constant angle that the Sidewinder attempted to maintain. This " proportional pursuit " system is straightforward to implement and offers high-performance lead calculation almost for free and can respond to changes in

3774-458: The missile to track aircraft at greater angles from its direct line of sight, or boresight. Models such as the AIM-9L, AIM-9M, and AIM-9X feature high off-boresight capabilities, meaning they are able to track targets at high seeker gimbal angles, or highly distant from its boresight. The Sidewinder is not guided by the actual position recorded by the detector, but by the change in position since

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3848-548: The missile was by Grumman F9F-8 Cougars and FJ-3 Furies of the United States Navy in the middle of 1956. Nearly 100,000 of the first generation (AIM-9B/C/D/E) of the Sidewinder were produced with Raytheon and General Electric as major subcontractors. Philco-Ford produced the guidance and control sections of the early missiles. The NATO version of the first-generation missile was built under license in Germany by Bodenseewerk Gerätetechnik ; 9,200 examples were built. AIM-9A

3922-653: The missile's flight profile from boost-and-glide (with a 3-second burn) to boost-sustain-glide (3 second boost - 4 second sustain), increasing its range from 17nm to 18.4nm at a height of 30,000ft and at a height 5,000ft the range increase was more substantial, raising from 14nm to 16nm. The maximum flight time was also raised from 40 to 50-60 seconds. In RAF service the missiles were usually carried in conjunction with four short-range air-to-air missiles, either AIM-9 Sidewinders or ASRAAMs . A version with an active Thomson CSF -developed radar seeker and inertial mid-course update capability, Skyflash Mk 2 (called Active Skyflash),

3996-583: The noise bandwidth of the transmitter can also increase energy density. Spectral density matched to the receive radar detection bandwidth is the limiting factor for maximum range. Recent-generation SARH weapons have superior electronic counter-countermeasure ( ECCM ) capability, but the system still has fundamental limitations. Some newer missiles, such as the SM-2 , incorporate terminal semi-active radar homing (TSARH). TSARH missiles use inertial guidance for most of their flight, only activating their SARH system for

4070-458: The original vacuum tubes. The AIM-9H also included a new lead sulphide detector, using nitrogen cooling. The new guidance package was built using semiconductors. When the engineers redesigned these electronics, they essentially kept the AIM-9G's optical system, but the tracking rate increased further, from the original 12˚ to 20˚ degrees per second, this complementing the more powerful 120 lb.ft actuators that had been installed. They also replaced

4144-454: The other 7 were MiG-21s. This was due to the missile design and USN fighter pilot training at TOPGUN . The United States Air Force attempted to attain AIM-9Gs from the USN, due to bad experience with their AIM-9 Sidewinders models (B, E, and J), but they were incompatible with US Air Force's Sidewinder launchers due to the different cooling mechanisms. (the USN used a nitrogen gas container on

4218-414: The pilot knowing that a missile has been launched. The global positioning system allows a missile to reach the predicted intercept with no datalink, greatly increasing lethality by postponing illumination for most of the missile flight. The pilot is unaware that a launch has occurred, so flying techniques become almost irrelevant. One difficulty is testing, because this feature creates public safety risks if

4292-458: The radar is pointed at the target and the missile keeps itself centered in the beam by listening to the signal at the rear of the missile body. In the SARH system the missile listens for the reflected signal at the nose, and is still responsible for providing some sort of "lead" guidance. The disadvantages of beam riding are twofold: One is that a radar signal is "fan shaped", growing larger, and therefore less accurate, with distance. This means that

4366-507: The right direction. Additionally, the missile will listen rearward to the launch platform's transmitted signal as a reference, enabling it to avoid some kinds of radar jamming distractions offered by the target. The SARH system determines the closing velocity using the flight path geometry shown in Figure 1. The closing velocity is used to set the frequency location for the CW receive signal shown at

4440-413: The slewing of the optics through a search pattern to acquire the enemy (most likely using a rosette scan ), it also allowed the slaving of the optics to a radar or helmet sight. This was connected to the onboard computer of the aircraft, which gave the capability of capturing the target using the data coming from the airborne radar. This meant that the target could be locked without being in the sights, and

4514-476: The target's flight path, which is much more efficient and makes the missile "lead" the target. During World War II , various researchers in Germany designed infrared guidance systems of various complexity. The most mature development of these, codenamed Hamburg , was intended for use by the Blohm & Voss BV 143 glide bomb in an anti-ship role. Hamburg used a single IR photocell as its detector along with

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4588-618: The thermal battery with a turbo-alternator. The AIM-9H also included a continuous-rod bundle warhead, improving its destructive capability. The AIM-9H was the last and most manoeuvrable of the rear-aspect USN Sidewinders, with USN moving to the all-aspect AIM-9L. The AIM-9H was actually used at the very end of the Vietnam war, with it being introduced into the US navy service in 1972 and being used in Operation Linebacker . A total of around 7,700 AIM-9H units would be manufactured from 1972-1974 by Philco-Ford and Raytheon. The AIM-9H

4662-459: The time the war ended. In the immediate post-war era, Allied military intelligence teams collected this information, along with many of the engineers working on these projects. Several lengthy reports on the various systems were produced and disseminated among the Western aircraft firms, while a number of the engineers joined these companies to work on various missile projects. By the late 1940s

4736-560: Was a pre-production of the Sidewinder, first fired successfully in September 1953. Missile production began in 1955, and the first models entered the Navy's fleet service in 1956. Generally, it was a prototype production run, with 240 pieces being produced, and mainly intended for training pilots in air combat techniques. The AIM-9A was initially called the AAM-N-7 before the tri-service designation change in 1962. An interesting fact about

4810-453: Was added for the fuze, being the first in the world. This enhanced the missile's head sensitivity. Maneuverability was also improved with a faster tracking rate, as well as a new actuator system. The Sidewinder's range was improved as well, with the new Hercules MK 36 solid-fuel rocket motor allowing the missile to fly up to 18km. Finally, a new Mk 48 continuous-rod warhead was fitted to the missile for increased damage; this also meant infrared or

4884-432: Was famously the first Sidewinder variant to be fired in anger as on 24 September 1958, it achieved the world's first successful kill with a air-to-air missiles, when Taiwanese F-86Fs shot down Communist Chinese MiG-15s using AIM-9Bs supplied and fitted by the U.S. Navy (USN). RB24 : A Swedish AIM-9B Sidewinder. K-13/R-3 (AA-2) : The K-13/R-3 was a reversed engineered AIM-9B Sidewinder, A engagement on 28 September 1958 in

4958-550: Was not present. There were 71 AIM-9E launch attempts from January to October 1972, however, only 6 missiles managed to down an aircraft, with 1 other hitting an aircraft, but not causing complete destruction. Reasons for the poor success rate was listed as "poor air crew training, launches out of the envelope, the tactical situation, marginal tone, tone discrimination, the missile going ballistic, and other malfunctions". AIM-9E : Standard production model. AIM-9E-2 : Some "E" models are equipped with reduced-smoke rocket motors and have

5032-562: 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 a ramjet-powered version, the S225XR became the basis for the MBDA Meteor . In 1996 the RAF announced the launch of

5106-526: Was stopped at 1,850 units, with the rest being ordered to AIM-9G seeker specifications instead. Around 2120 AIM-9G were built by Raytheon from 1970 to 1972. The AIM-9G would be used with its predecessor, the AIM-9D, during the Vietnam War, as the US Navy's choice of IR missile. A 46% hit rate with the AIM-9G during Operation Linebackers I and II in 1972 was achieved, of which 14 aircraft were MiG-17s and

5180-608: Was tested in the US, but after trials against experimental monopulse seekers from Raytheon, the United States Navy elected to order a different monopulse-equipped version of the Sparrow, the AIM-7M. Both Skyflash and AIM-7M were later replaced by the more capable AMRAAM . Skyflash came out of a British plan to develop an inverse monopulse seeker for the Sparrow AIM-7E-2 by General Electric Company (GEC) and

5254-491: Was the first version developed solely by the U.S. Air Force (USAF). The AIM-9E allows the expansion of the weapons acquisition envelope, especially at low-altitude, increasing its Probability of Kill (P[k]). It achieved this using a new low-drag conical nose head, being a distinguishing feature of USAF Sidewinders. A magnesium fluoride seeker dome was introduced, along with a more compact optical assembly, an improved guidance control system, new electronics, and significant changes to

5328-441: Was the first version to enter widespread production, in spite of a very long seeker settling time around 22 seconds, as opposed to 11 seconds for the original version. PL-2 : Chinese produced R-3S. A-91 : Romanian produced R-3S. K-13R/R-3R (Object 320) (AA-2B/C Atoll) : While the R-3S was being introduced in 1961, work started on a semi-active radar homing (SARH) version for high-altitude use, with 8 km range, similar to

5402-428: Was the only planned modification. Recognizing the limitations of the initial AIM-9B, the US Navy (USN) worked to improve the missile's performance. They changed the missile nose to an aerodynamical ogival nose. The seeker was improved with a wider field of view beyond 25 degrees and a reduced instantaneous field of view of 2.5 degrees, to reduce foreign thermal interference (from flares). A better nitrogen cooling system

5476-545: 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

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