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AIM-9 Sidewinder
Sign in to saveAlso known as Rb 24, Sidewinder, AIM9, AAM-N-7
1952 air-to-air missile family by Raytheon
Key facts
- Type
- Short-range air-to-air missile
- Place of origin
- United States
- In service
- 1956–present
- Used by
- See Operators
- Wars
- Second Taiwan Strait Crisis Vietnam War Yom Kippur War Iran–Iraq War Gulf of Sidra incident (1981) Falklands War , 1982 Lebanon War 1989 air battle near Tobruk Gulf War Bosnian War Operation Allied Force 2023 Chinese balloon incident Gaza war Red Sea crisis Russian invasion of Ukraine 2026 Iran War
- Manufacturer
- Raytheon Company , Ford Aerospace , Loral Corp. , Nammo
- Unit cost
- US$381,069.74 (Block II), US$399,500.00 (Block II Plus), US$209,492.75 (training missile), (All as of 2019 )
- Produced
- 1953–present
- Mass
- 188 pounds (85.3 kg)
- Length
- 9 feet 11 inches (3.02 m)
- Diameter
- 5 in (127.0 mm)
- Wingspan
- 11 in (279.4 mm)
- Warhead
- WDU-17/B annular blast-fragmentation
- Warhead weight
- 20.8 lb (9.4 kg)
- Detonation mechanism
- IR proximity fuze
- Engine
- Hercules/Bermite Mk. 36 solid-fuel rocket
- Operational range
- 0.6 to 22 miles (1.0 to 35.4 km )
- Maximum speed of vehicle or missile span
- Mach 2.5+
via Wikipedia infobox
~40 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The AIM-9 Sidewinder is a short-range air-to-air missile. It entered service with the United States Navy in 1956 and the Air Force in 1964, and is one of the oldest, cheapest, and most successful air-to-air missiles. Its latest variants (AIM-9X) remain standard equipment in most Western-aligned air forces. The Soviet K-13 (AA-2 "Atoll"), 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 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 the AIM-95 Agile and SRAAM that were intended to replace it.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “AIM-9 Sidewinder” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.