Air to Air Missiles

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lobbie111

New Member
Is anyone here well acquainted with different types of Air to air missiles, i am referring more to short range missiles such as the AIM-9X, the IRIS-T and the AIM-123 (ASRAAM) and the Vympel R-73 (AA-11 Archer).

Could anyone give me a comparison in terms of capabilities and differences. I know that all of these missiles are similar so it would be interesting to see what everyone has to say.
 
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contedicavour

New Member
You can add the MICA-IR.

You'll find most answers on google, wikipedia, and the builders' internet sites.

However in a couple of sentences, the short range missiles are mostly infrared fire and forget. In the last decade Russia has actually been superior with longer range R73/AA11 capable of changing trajectory 180° and with a range in excess of anything the West had. France is also ahead with 50-70km range MICA IR. The rest of the West is catching up with similar performance IRIS-T entering service now in small batches and the latest of the AIM9 family.

cheers
 
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tphuang

Super Moderator
eaf-f16 said:
I thought China's short-range missile is a licensed produced version of Israel's Python 3.
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they've made a lot of modifications to PL-8 and it's much better than Python 3. Also, they have PL-9C, which is not related to python 3.
 
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kato

The Bunker Group
Verified Defense Pro
sunjerem said:
Isn't AIM-132 ASRAAM from USA? If so, does US use it?
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ASRAAM is a joint UK/French (BAe/Matra) development. The ASRAAM has a US Designation because it stemmed from a project that would develop a successor to the AIM-9. The USA along with the other partners pulled out of the program in 1990, leaving only the UK to develop it.
 
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swerve

Super Moderator
kato said:
ASRAAM is a joint UK/French (BAe/Matra) development. The ASRAAM has a US Designation because it stemmed from a project that would develop a successor to the AIM-9. The USA along with the other partners pulled out of the program in 1990, leaving only the UK to develop it.
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Exactly. The plan was that the USA would develop an active-radar medium-range AAM, & European countries would develop a IR-homing short-range AAM, & everyone would buy both. Germany & the UK disagreed about the requirements for the short-range AAM to be developed (hence Asraam & IRIS-T being both developed), & the USA decided to buy neither, but develop the AIM-9X instead. Meanwhile, the UK & Italy had dropped their own AMRAAM equivalents (IIRC the Swedes were in on the UK project) so everyone over here except the French was stuck with having to buy a foreign active-radar AAM, with no reciprocal purchase of their IR AAMs.

Here is the manufacturers web page on Asraam -
http://www.mbda-systems.com/mbda/site/FO/scripts/siteFO_contenu.php?lang=EN&noeu_id=121
 
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Mobius117

New Member
sunjerem said:
Oh, I see. The AIM-132 is mach 3.5, faster than AIM-9X?
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Yes, by an entire Mach mark, although at close range combat (where an passive infrared missile will be used), the AIM-9X's Mach 2.5 velocity will be more than adequate to hit a target likely to be manuevering at a subsonic velocity or escaping at transonic or low supersonic speeds.

In addition (to my knowledge), the ASRAAM, AIM-9X, and IRIS-T all use the same Raytheon seeker head and as such all boast lock-on after launch capability, off boresight targeting, and thrust vectoring control.
 
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Scorpion82

New Member
Mobius117 said:
In addition (to my knowledge), the ASRAAM, AIM-9X, and IRIS-T all use the same Raytheon seeker head and as such all boast lock-on after launch capability, off boresight targeting, and thrust vectoring control.
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That's not fully correct. The IRIS-T uses another seeker developed by Diehl BGT Defence of Germany, but the seeker has similar capabilities. ASRAAM does not feature TVC.
 
K

kato

The Bunker Group
Verified Defense Pro
Scorpion82 said:
The IRIS-T uses another seeker developed by Diehl BGT Defence of Germany, but the seeker has similar capabilities.
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In fact the "IRIS" part of the name is the seeker (T is for TVC). Diehl also - in the beginning - marketed the IRIS seeker as a standalone AIM-9 upgrade, although generally has only sold it as part of the IRIS-T combination. Diehl's LFK NG might use a modified/upgraded version of the IRIS seeker.
 
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Mercurius

New Member
The ‘brochure’ ranges for air-to-air missiles are of limited use, since no engagement conditions are quoted.

But for what they are worth, the range figures for the missiles under discussion are

ASRAAM – 20km
AIM-9X – 10km
A-Darter – 20km
IRIS-T – 12km
Python 4 – 15km
Python 5 – 20km

The speed of Mach 2.5 mentioned for AIM-9X may be a little on the slow side, given its low-drag configuration, while Mach 3.5 is in the correct ballpark for ASRAAM. Trials footage of ASRAAM seeker imagery show strong dome-heating effects and at one time the designers had a backup plan to add dome cooling should this have proved necessary.

Mercurius Cantabrigiensis
 
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Scorpion82

New Member
According a Lw article from late 2005 about the introduction of the IRIS-T into service, the range was given with 25 km.

Link:
http://www.luftwaffe.de/portal/a/lu...1DB060000000001/N26JWG6Z473TDANDE/content.jsp

Passage:
Die neue Kurzstreckenrakete mit dem Namen IRIS-T (Infra-Red Imaging System – Tail/Thrust vector controlled) ist in der Lage, Ziele in einer Entfernung von bis zu 25 Kilometern präzise zu bekämpfen.
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Rough own translation:
The new short range AAM with the designation IRIS-T is capable to engage targets with precision up to ranges of 25 km.
 
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