SIDEWINDER MISSILE

WHY IT IS CALLED SIDEWINDER MISSILE The AIM-9 Sidewinder is a heat-seeking, short-range, air-to-air missile carried by fighter aircraft and recently, certain gunship helicopters. It is named after the Sidewinder snake, which also detects its prey via body heat. The Sidewinder was the first truly effective air-to-air missile, widely imitated and copied. Its latest variants remain in active service with many air forces

SMART WEAPONS Short-range, air-to-air missile. Missiles like the Sidewinder are called smart weapons because they have built-in seeking systems that let them home in on a target. After World War II, Most early guided weapon prototypes were built around radar technology, which proved to be expensive and problematic. These missiles had their own radar sensors, but obviously could not carry their own radar transmitters. Pilot had to keep the aircraft in a vulnerable position after firing in order to keep a radar lock on the enemy until the missile could find it. Additionally, the radar equipment in the missile was large and expensive

ARCHITECTURE manufactured by different companies, including Aerojet and Raytheon. The missile is divided into four main sections: guidance, target detector, warhead, and rocket motor.

Various models Except AIM-9X, Two electric servos power the canards to steer the missile. The AIM-9X also features a Built-In-Test to aid in maintenance and reliability. Versions older than the AIM-9L featured an influence fuse that relied on the target's magnetic field as input. The AIM-9H model contained a 25 pound roded-blast fragmentary warhead. All other models up to the AIM-9M contained a 22 pound annular blast fragmentary warhead.

HEAT SENSING In 1947, a Naval physicist named Bill McLean took it upon himself to build a better system -- a missile that would seek out the heat from an enemy aircraft's engine system. Since the missile would home in on the target's own emitted energy, rather than reflected radio energy, the pilot could "fire and forget" -- that is, he could launch the missile and get clear. In place of the bulky radar equipment, the missile would use a relatively small heat-sensing photovoltaic cell to "see" the target.

THE COMPONENTS The Sidewinder needs nine major components: Rocket motor, Rear stabilizing wings, Seeker, Guidance control electronics Control actuation section flight fins Warhead Fuse system Battery

SIDEWINDER STATS (FOR THE AIM-9M) Length: 9 feet, 5 inches (~2.9 m) Diameter: 5 inches (~13 cm) Weight: 188 pounds (~85 kg) Fin span: 2 feet, 3/4 of an inch (~63 cm) Cost: $84,000 Top Speed: Mach 2.5 Range: 18 miles (~29 km)

THE SYSTEM "umbilical cable" near the nose of the missile connects the onboard electronic control system to the aircraft's computer system. The aircraft computer sends a command to the missile control system to activate the Mk 36 rocket motor and release the missile. The rocket motor burns up solid propellant material to generate a high-pressure gas that streams out the back of the missile This provides the initial thrust necessary to get the missile off the launcher and push it through the air at supersonic speeds

Each of the four rear wings, which provide the necessary lift to keep the missile flying, is outfitted with a simple stabilizing device called a rolleron.

TRACKING: INFRARED It has an array of sensors that generate an electrical signal when exposed to the infrared light given off by hot objects. Infrared seekers don't need an outside light source, so they work perfectly well night or day. In the current Sidewinder models, the infrared sensor array is coupled with a conical scanning system.

TRACKING: GUIDANCE CONTROL SYSTEM The guidance control system's main goal is to keep the infrared image of the enemy aircraft roughly centered so that the missile nose continues to point toward the target. If the infrared image moves off center, the control system sends a signal to the servo assembly. To compensate for the target's own motion, the control system uses a strategy called proportional navigation. The basic idea of this approach is to over-compensate course corrections .

INFLICTING DAMAGE: OPTICAL TARGET DETECTOR It's designed to go off when it gets very close to the target. For this it uses optical target detector which consist of eight laser-emitter diodes and eight light-sensor diodes . When the Sidewinder is in flight, the detector is constantly emitting laser beams in a spoke pattern around the missile.

INFLICTING DAMAGE: WDU-17/B WARHEAD 20-pound (9-kg) WDU-17/B warhead. It consist of PBXN-3 high explosive, booster plates, an initiator device and nearly 200 titanium fragmentation rods. the fuse mechanism, which sends an explosive charge through the initiator to the booster plates.

Mechanism of explosion The explosive charge from the initiator ignites low-explosive material in the booster plate channels, which ignites explosive pellets surrounding the high-explosive material. The pellets ignite the high explosive, causing it to release a huge amount of hot gas in a short amount of time. The powerful explosive force from this expanding gas blasts the titanium rods outward, breaking them apart to form thousands of metal pieces, all zipping through the air at top speed.

ADVANTAGES Low cost of development and ownership compared to other missiles. Superior performance exceeds tactical requirement. Greater efficiency than conventional radar guided missiles . Greater success rate.

CONCLUSION Most early guided weapon prototypes were built around radar technology, which proved to be expensive and problematic. The Sidewinder AIM-9 is classified as a short-range, air-to-air missile. Missiles like the Sidewinder are called smart weapons because they have built-in seeking systems that let them home in on a target. The Sidewinder is so successful that the United States Navy hosted a 50th anniversary celebration of its existence in 2002.

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