what is the top short range AAM? Aim-9x, Aim-132 ASRAAM, IRIS-T, AA-11(Vympel R-73), something else?

from what i can find, AIM9x, AA-11, and IRIS-T emphasize maneuverability while ASRAAM emphasizes very high speed with limited maneuvering, which is why the US and Germany pulled out of ASRAAM project and developed their own. 

Going by combat record, I think the American Sidewinder (the current most modern varient before AIM-9-X), and the Israeli Python (I think the newest is Python 4 or 5).

 

As far as "bang for the buck", I think these are the best, followed by the Russian AA-11.

 

I am sure all of the Western missiles in development and early fielding now, such as AIM-9-X, IRIS-T and ASRAAM are all excellent, but expensive and unproven.

The ASRAAM is certainly optimised to give an amount of range overlap with the AMRAAM, but it is very agile and quite capable of over-the-shoulder shots.

in the last war in lebannon python 5 was the first ever to shoot down an UAV

it can be shot 360* meaning even if a jet is on your back you can still win.

Or should we just accept it as gospel and never question anything that places anything not american in number one spot again?

Any chance of a reason for any of that, mechanic?

Mecanic :

""ASRAAM is clearly "long range short range" missile and little more better at short range than MICA IR""

""AIM-9X is the king of the hill at short range""



Where did you get that crap ?





Cheers .

From a better source than you did with MICA, BW. 360 degree aspect? Beyond 10 kilometer IR seeker acquisittion without radar updating?  Who are you trying to kid? Not me, I hope.

 

Mechanic, if you have some good unclassified source on ASRAAM I would be interested. I really don't know that much about the missile. I am curious. 

 

Herald

Mecanic :

""ASRAAM is clearly "long range short range" missile and little more better at short range than MICA IR""

""AIM-9X is the king of the hill at short range""



Where did you get that crap ?





Cheers .

Please be more specific.

ASRAAM is designed for long range shot. LOAL mode and published max range figures support that. It's also almost wingless giving up some mid range manouverability but gaining some range. Mica suffers from higher launch weight at short range.

AIM-9X's superioirity is not so easy to prove, but the considering the previous paragraph it has good chance to to be better than Mica or ASRAAM at closer range. Part of the superioirity  is the optimal weight and wing design and superior seeker compared to Python 4.

And remember we are not speaking differencies that define the winner of a merge, but minor differencies of modern high performance missiles.

 

I think I would have said mass distribution along the aeroshell cg vector line instead of weight  when discussing the AIM 9X, but I understand what you meant perfectly. 

Thank you.

 

Herald