Philco-Ford AIM-9L Sidewinder

A short-range passive Infra-Red homing heat-seeking air-to-air missile carried offensively and for self-defence. Named after the Sidewinder snake, which also detects its prey via body heat. Developed by the U.S Navy from the late 1940s, with the first successful firing in September 1953. Production of the AIM-9L began in 1977.

Sidewinder is operated ‘within visual range’ as a dog fighting missile which launches and arms itself very quickly. It is capable of being launched from a wide range of aircraft types. As a ‘fire-and-forget’ missile, the pilot can fire several missiles at different targets, being heat seeking it homes in on the engine exhaust of the target aircraft. The AIM-9L missile entered RAF service in 1982 and is believed to come out of RAF service in 2018, although later variants remain in use with many air forces throughout the world.