iscover
Death of a Q F -102. This AIM-9P-4 is about to destroy a QF-102 supersonic target drone. The missile carried an inert warhead, but nevertheless caused fatal structural damage by puncturing the centresection of the target, resulting in its breakup in subsequent frames. The all aspect heatseeker has led to fundamental changes in dogfighting technique and has rewritten much of the rulebook on fighter design, forcing ever increasing instantaneous turn rates.
Technology Explained – The Sidewinder Story
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The Sidewinder Story
The Missile that Revolutionised Air Warfare
The ubiquitous AIM-9 Sidewinder is without doubt the most important missile of the last three decades, seeing service in every engagement between Western powers and their adversaries since the nineteen fifties.
Shamelessly copied by the Communists as the K-13/AA-2 Atoll, the Sidewinder has had a profound influence on the design of modern heatseekers and is much the yardstick against which such missiles are judged today.
The collapse of the agreement between the US and EC nations on the ASRAAM, the planned successor to the AIM-9, has seen further life injected into the humble Sidewinder, with the US at the time of writing electing to continue the development and production of the weapon for its own services.
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