The air-to-air missile grew out of the unguided air-to-air rockets used during the First World War. Le Prieur rockets were sometimes attached to the struts of biplanes and fired … See more

Guided missiles operate by detecting their target (usually by either radar or infrared methods, although rarely others such as laser guidance or optical tracking), and then "homing" in on the target on a collision course.
Although the … See more

A missile is subject to a minimum range, before which it cannot maneuver effectively. In order to maneuver sufficiently from a poor launch angle at short ranges to hit its … See more

Short-range air-to-air missiles (SRAAMs), typically used in "dogfighting", are usually classified into five "generations" according to the historical technological advances. Most of these advances were in infrared seeker technology (later combined with digital signal processing See more

A conventional explosive blast warhead, fragmentation warhead, or continuous rod warhead (or a combination of any of those three warhead types) is typically used in the attempt to … See more

Air-to-air missiles are typically long, thin cylinders in order to reduce their cross section and thus minimize drag at the high speeds at which they … See more

A number of terms frequently crop up in discussions of air-to-air missile performance.
Launch success zone The Launch Success Zone is the range within which there is a high (defined) kill probability against a target … See more