The US Navy wants a recent human-transportable missile that troopers can pronounce to shoot down aircraft. Having a see to exchange the passe Stinger anti-air weapon, the Navy place out a demand for records on March 28, and desires the weapon in manufacturing by 2027. A brand recent anti-air weapon program for the Navy has lengthy been within the works, but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has forged the scenario in stark relief. The skill of troopers on the ground to slay aircraft, or as a minimum have the threat of airstrikes a threat to pilots, has vastly constrained how Russia is stopping the battle.
The solicitation dryly notes that “The most standard Stinger inventory is in decline,” which is one skill to listing the US Navy sending thousands of the missiles from its have inventory to Ukraine’s defense force. The missiles imprint $38,000 apiece, which partly explains why items just like the 173rd Airborne Brigade had trained with replicas in desire to dwell missiles, a practice that changed this month.
These missiles join even older anti-air weapons, just like the Soviet-made Strela anti-air missiles Germany despatched to Ukraine, in bolstering the defense of Ukraine without actively becoming a member of the wrestle within the sky above. These weapons are both MANPADS, or man-transportable air defense methods, and both Strelas and Stingers were developed within the 1960s as an answer to jets and helicopters on the battlefield. The missiles obtain furthermore been included into launchers on autos, that would perchance per chance also lift extra weapons and incorporate extra developed sensors to detect and notice opposed aircraft before firing.
A aggregate of human-carried and automobile-mounted anti-air defenses allowed Ukraine’s defense force to inflict essential effort on Russian aircraft flying low attack runs, an procedure that in flip drove Russia’s air force to undertake less correct bigger-altitude bombing runs as a skill of retaining aircraft.
In 2022, human-carried anti-air missiles still obtain a characteristic in attacking helicopters and planes, but they are able to furthermore must characteristic in skies corpulent of drones, with far better sensors and countermeasures than were that you may per chance presumably presumably judge of decades within the past. To take hang of the Stinger substitute, first it helps to take hang of the Stinger.
Meet the venerable Stinger
“The usual Stinger weapon is a Marine-transportable, shoulder-fired, infrared (IR) radiation homing (warmth-searching out for out) guided missile that requires no retain a watch on from the gunner after firing,” explains the Marine Corps’ Low Altitude Air Protection Gunner’s Handbook. Full with a launcher, it weighs 34.5 kilos, of which 12.5 kilos is the missile, which itself incorporates 2.25 kilos of explosive warhead.
It is essential against fast, low-flying aircraft aged to attack of us, autos, or structures on the ground. It would perchance per chance begin monitoring targets at a unfold of 15,700 feet, or factual disquieted of 3 miles, and it will hit autos as far-off as 12,500 feet, or 2.4 miles. Upgraded and standard variations of the missile obtain a processor to serve have particular it fully targets opposed autos and no longer pleasant ones, and these missiles furthermore lift a clear processor that’s essential against infrared countermeasures.
Warmth-searching out for out against the engine of a helicopter or jet is an especially respectable skill to discover and notice the car.
“The Stinger seeker can discriminate between radiati