This Air-to-Air missile mercilessly seeks outs its target and finishes it off. There is only a little chance of escape.
Named after a venomous the snake that is sensitive to infrared and so can sense the heat of its prey, the deadly Sidewinder missile does much the same. First tested in 1953, the Sidewinder is a
heat-seeking, short-range air-to-air missile used by fighter aircraft. Once launched, it will fly towards a hot target usually the engines of an aircraft or another missile. The key to the system is hidden in the nose of the missile. The seeker consists of an array of sensors that react to infrared light; similar in principle to the CCD sensor in a digital camera but simpler in that it only judges its surroundings as ‘very hot’ or ‘not very hot’. In other words, t can ‘see’ heat. The sensors, plus its
assembly of mirrors and lenses, spin off center so that they can scan a wide vista and also work out where the heat is in relation to the missile. For instance, if the target is over to the right, the sensors will detect more infrared when they are aimed in that direction. The sensors feed information to the
guidance control system that, in turn, move the fi ns at the back of the missile to steer the Sidewinder towards the target. Or rather, aim it at a point slightly ahead of the target to ensure that it doesn’t end
up chasing it and never catching it. This is called proportional navigation and effectively anticipates where the target will be at the point of impact. In fact, the Sidewinder doesn’t actually impact with its target, but is designed to explode just before it hits it, to ensure maximum damage. Lasers positioned
behind the forward fi ns emit light, and when the missile is close to the target, the light bounces off it and back to sensors on the missile, telling the systems to trigger the warhead. The Sidewinder is launched from an aircraft and is initially propelled by a rocket motor that hurls it forward at a speed of Mach 2.5 (about 3,060km/h). Once the fuel has been used, the missile glides the rest of the way to its target.