Smart missiles "Stinger"

Developed by the US military rocket "Stinger" ("sting" is translated from English as "sting") can be called one of the first variants of the so-called "intelligent" weapons.

From the go - into battle

"Stinger" has many advantages. First of all - the ability to run from the shoulder, almost on the go. At the same time, it takes only about thirty seconds to prepare a rocket for battle. Aiming at the target is carried out using an infrared scanner, the effective ceiling of the firing is about five kilometers, and the speed of the rocket is about one and a half thousand kilometers per hour. Unlike the previous generation of portable anti-aircraft missile systems (MANPADS "Stingers" were equipped with a highly sensitive guidance head, which easily distinguished the heat of aircraft engines from the false traps used aviation to combat homing missiles. Having caught the target, the Stinger quickly caught up and hit even a jet fighter.

The first Stingers entered service in West Germany in 1981, and a year later, the US 82 Airborne Division was equipped with smart missiles. It was this division that played the main role in “bringing order” to 1983 of the year in Grenada, but the Stingers did not succeed in using the Americans that time.

Sad as it may seem, the first targets for smart missiles were our Soviet helicopter gunships in Afghanistan.

Dushmans with rockets

According to the memoirs of Mujahideen field commander Mohammad Yusuf, 25 September 1986 was close to noon, about three dozen "supreme soldiers" secretly made their way to a small high-rise, located just one and a half kilometers from the runway of Jalalabad airfield. In fact, the Mujahideen, armed with three Stinger launchers and a dozen missiles, were inside the Russian-Afghan positions. Each calculation was organized in such a way that three people would shoot, and the other two held rocket tubes for quick reloading.

About three hours later, eight Soviet Mi-24 helicopter gunships approached the airfield. Mujahideen made for shooting. Another “soldier of the Most High,” armed with a video camera, was shaking in nervous excitement, trying to focus the lens on rapidly descending helicopters.

When the first helicopter was only two hundred meters above the ground, the command rang out: "Fire", and with shouts of "Allahakbar" the Mujahideen fired a volley at the helicopters. One of the three rockets did not work and fell, without exploding, just a few meters from the group of shooters. But the other two overtook their targets, and both helicopters crashed into the runway. Encouraged by the success of the Mujahideen reloaded launchers and managed to release two more missiles. One of them knocked out the third helicopter, and the second passed by, since our pilot had already managed to land the car on the ground.

The operator ran around during the whole fight. He was so overwhelmed with emotions that the entire recording of this event consisted mostly of blurry pieces of sky, bushes and stony ground. As a result, the confirmation of a successful attack by the Mujahideen could only be the black smoke that accidentally hit the lens, rising lazily from the crash site of the helicopters. Soon this record was shown to President Reagan, and the tube from the Stinger, the first one released on the combat target, was given to him as a souvenir.
Change of tactics

In November 1986, the Mujahideen destroyed with the help of “Stingers” four of our attack aircraft Su-25. And by September 1987, the loss of the Soviet aircraft was already a whole squadron.

From this point on, all combat, transport aircraft and even civil airliners at Kabul airport and at all other airports in Afghanistan took off and landed only accompanied by helicopters, continuously shooting infrared traps. Only in this way it was possible to escape from the Stingers. In addition, a special tactic has been developed for sharp, spiraling airplanes because of the transcendental heights unattainable for these missiles.

The morale of the Mujahideen rose steadily. Especially since the Americans promised them to deliver up to two hundred and fifty launchers a year, plus more than a thousand more missiles. Moreover, in order to prevent the possibility of selling the missiles "to the side" by irresponsible mujahideen, the US government promised to send two additional missiles for each Soviet combat vehicle shot down by the Stinger.

Advanced Stormtrooper

The chief designer of the Su-25 attack aircraft, V. Babak, personally traveled to Afghanistan and brought the plane destroyed by Stinger to Moscow from there. Thorough research has shown that American missiles mainly hit engines from the bottom and side, destroying compressors and turbines. At the same time, the turbine blades scattered the sides with terrible centrifugal force, and as a result, they crashed everything and everyone in their path, destroying the aircraft much more efficiently than the rocket itself. The designers took into account this moment, and since August 1987 of the year, Su-25 increased survivability began to arrive in Afghanistan - with refractory steel control rods, with steel plates on the sides of engine compartments, with protective fiberglass mats and automatic shut-off of fuel supply when the fire system was turned on . For blowing engines and cooling the nozzles fitted special air intakes that made the aircraft less attractive for infrared targeting heads. Additionally, the system has been improved shooting off false targets.

How to deal with "Stinger"

It is clear that the Stingers did not last long in the hands of Americans and Afghans who officially received missiles from the United States government. Gradually, the secret weapon was no longer secret and moved to other troubled countries, to numerous rebels, or simply to the terrorists, who willingly began to use this very formidable weapon.

The rampage of terrorists armed with the Stingers forced aircraft manufacturers to come to grips with the security issues of both combat and passenger aircraft. For example, not so long ago, one of the British corporations was developed and successfully passed an anti-missile system, which includes, in particular, technologies designed to protect aircraft from ground-based missiles, including Stinger complexes. This system, according to its creators, constantly scans the surface of the ground in order not to miss the flash of energy characteristic of a rocket launch. In case of its detection, the system makes a laser shot directly into the optics of the attacking missile in order to “blind” and change its trajectory. The cost of installation on the aircraft such equipment reaches, according to experts, about a million dollars.

Our designers are not far behind the West. True, nothing has been heard about the development of such systems protecting passenger airplanes, but something is known about combat vehicles. For example, the famous "Black Shark" - the Kamov K-50 helicopter - easily carries tank armor capable of withstanding the direct hit of a Stinger missile.