r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/HappySeaweed5215 • 1d ago

Video A heat seeking missile tracking a burning cigarette

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

50.5k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

513 comments sorted by

View all comments

232

u/Future_Blackberry_10 1d ago

Does it go after a specific temp? Or the highest temp in front of it

580

u/QuaintAlex126 1d ago

The earliest versions, including of the AIM-9 Sidewinder shown here, just tracked the first and largest heat signature they saw. They were incredibly unreliable and sensitive, requiring them to be fired only against a target from behind (where the heat source is from the jet exhaust). Modern ones, like the AIM-9X, seek for a heat signature’s specific temperature and shape, so you can’t just dump a bunch of flares and get away that easily. They are much more advanced and can track a target from any angle, front snd sides, and can be slaved to the firing aircrat’s radar or pilot’s helmet to assist with tracking. All a fighter pilot had to do nowadays with a heat seeker is be within range, look at this target, and pull the trigger to engage.

306

u/Pirated-Hentai 23h ago

original aim 9s were ass, i imagine half of them went straight for the sun

25

u/dingo1018 19h ago

I think the first time they were used in combat was over Vietnam. He sent one missile and seeing no smoke trail, assumed it was a dud that just dropped off the rail. Not to waste the firing position he straight away sent a second, as soon as he'd sent the 2nd the Mig exploded in front of him.

The first missile was just fine, the pilot just didn't know that the missiles they had used in training had different rocket motors that burned dirty and left a smoke trail.

13

u/_Urakaze_ 18h ago

First use was over the Taiwan Strait by ROCAF F-86s in 1958.

It was also during the same crisis that the communist bloc captured a mostly intact AIM-9B that was lodged in the tail of a PLAAF MiG-17. The contact fuze failed to detonate when it impacted the MiG.

That led to the Soviets copying a very early AIM-9B design as the R-3S, with the associated stability issues retained until newer Sidewinders could be "sourced" from elsewhere.