AIM-82
Sign in to saveThe AIM-82 was a missile planned by the US Air Force but cancelled before any prototypes were built. It was designed as a much more maneuverable replacement for the AIM-9 Sidewinder to give it better performance against enemy fighter aircraft in close combat. Development was cancelled in favor of joining the US Navy's similar project, the AIM-95.
Wikidata facts
- Subclass of
- air-to-air missile
- Country of origin
- United States
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- 0
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Encyclopedic overview
4 sectionsContents
- Overview
- Specifications
- See also
- References
The AIM-82 was a missile planned by the US Air Force but cancelled before any prototypes were built. It was designed as a much more maneuverable replacement for the AIM-9 Sidewinder to give it better performance against enemy fighter aircraft in close combat. Development was cancelled in favor of joining the US Navy's similar project, the AIM-95.
==Overview== In 1969 the USAF was developing the F-15 Eagle fighter. Planned as the ultimate air superiority aircraft, the F-15 was intended to be as perfect as possible in every respect. Rather than rely on the existing AIM-9 Sidewinder, it was decided to develop an entirely new short-range air-to-air missile to equip the aircraft. The AIM-82 was to be an infrared-guided, all-aspect missile, capable of locking onto the target from any angle; Sidewinders of this period could only achieve a target lock if fired from almost directly behind the target where the heat of the engines provided a large infrared signature to the missile's seeker head.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “AIM-82” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.