Everything you always wanted to know about air-to-air missiles *(*But Were Afraid to Ask)

FOX 3 with Heatloss!

Guided air-to-air missiles (AAM) have existed since the Ruhrstahl X-4 appeared in 1944, over eighty years ago. During the Cold War, air-to-air missiles increased in sophistication and became harder to shake off. The technology of air-to-air missiles appeared relatively unchanged throughout the legacy AMRAAM era from the 1990s onwards; in the 2010s, a new generation of longer-range air-to-air missiles upset the applecart. We spoke to Heatloss to learn more about every combat pilot’s saviour, and nightmare.

(We ran these answers past former Air Warfare Instructor and fighter pilot Paul Tremmelling, and he chips in when he disagrees)

Ruhrstahl X-4

What technologies must a modern air-to-air missile contain?

For one being designed today? That’s a tough question! There’s stuff that they probably need that I don’t even know exists. It also depends on the type of missile you’re looking for. Some technologies that I would say are important across all types of missiles are multiple target detection methods (two IR bands or IR + Radar), high manoeuvrability—preferentially through thrust vectoring—and datalink.

Paul: “Can’t see why all AAMs would need a data link. After all, you only need to tell something something if it doesn’t know that something already! I’d say speed. In the world of Low Observable (stealth) aircraft you don’t shoot until you know you’re seen and then you need something quicker than a greased weasel. Just to be clear: data links are really important in AAMs, just not in short-range IR weapons.”

For a short-range infrared missile, two-color staring focal plane arrays, and a datalink are necessary. “Two-color staring focal plane array” means that it is an imaging infrared seeker that functions in roughly the same way that normal camera sensors do, except in two different infrared bands. This helps the missile discriminate between flares and targets due to their respective shapes and the intensity of infrared radiation in different bands.

Paul: “Disagree entirely about the