Sidewinder: The Missile that Changed Aerial Combat
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ย. 2024
- Play Conflict of Nations for FREE on PC or Mobile: 💥 con.onelink.me...
Receive an Amazing New Player Pack, only available for the next 30 days! Thanks to Conflict of Nations for sponsoring this video!
Got a beard? Good. I've got something for you: beardblaze.com
Simon's Social Media:
Twitter: / simonwhistler
Instagram: / simonwhistler
This video is #sponsored by Conflict of Nations.
Love content? Check out Simon's other TH-cam Channels:
Biographics: / @biographics
Geographics: / @geographicstravel
MegaProjects: / @megaprojects9649
Casual Criminalist: / @thecasualcriminalist
TopTenz: / toptenznet
Today I Found Out: / todayifoundout
Highlight History: / @highlighthistory
XPLRD: / @xplrd
Business Blaze: / @brainblaze6526
#MissilethatChangedAerialCombat #sideprojects
Receive an Amazing New Player Pack, only available for the next 30 days! Play Conflict of Nations for FREE on PC or Mobile 💥 con.onelink.me/kZW6/Sideprojects
The link to the related vid isn't in the description
You had me laughing on the bell! 😂😂🤣🤣😋🖤
Just FYI Simon, we call them aim (just like the word) not a-i-m, and for some reason we don't use the phonetic alphabet for the model, we just use the letter name. (AIM-9 L, not AIM-9 lima.) It's the same for all AIM variants. :) Also, they are called sidewinder because of the way they S-curve through the air to their target just like the snakes.
you missed out one very important part of the sidewinder..... the seeker tone
A missle that works sometimes, 40% at best changed warfare.
The stories of duds are horrible
How sensitive is the Sidewinder Infrared seeker? Back in the late 1970's while getting a tour or an F-4 Phantom that had Sidewinders loaded up, our group noticed to our surprise that the seeker head was gimballing and moving, obviously tracking. . .something. Looking for what it was targeting, we eventually noticed a guy walking on the edge of the flight line, about 300 feet away. . .smoking a cigarette. And yep. the seeker was detecting it. So remember kids, smoking can be really dangerous.
Yeah, having a sidewinder fly up your left nostril would certainly indicate that you were having a bad day.
I mean we are talking about something very close and not much colder than a jet engine with no afterburner.
Holy crap! I just realized... That scene in the movie XXX where Vin Diesel's character fired a heat-seeking rocket at a chain smoking sniper is actually plausible? I mean that's definitely not a sidewinder but if the seeker is based on the same tech...
One of the (many) reasons we never smoked after sunset while being in a tactical environment with the Infantry. The biggest reason is how far away the cherry in a cigarette can be seen at night. That being said, in Chuck Yeager’s autobiography, he told an amusing anecdote about being involved with testing the first heat seeking missiles. When they fired them, they headed straight towards the sun. 😂
The current version can detect the temperature differential between the leading edge of the wing and the main wing itself. No tailpipe view required. The seeker head is cryogenically cooled to give it that degree of sensitivity.
The M2 .50 general purpose heavy machinegun may be a good Side Project. One of those centenarian weapon systems.
Ma Dues! Whoop whoop!
And the M1911 pistol, still used in some Military units today J.M.B. was a god!
Those bricks with a pipe will continue serving with the US military for another century.
The Space Force is going to set up a Mars base in 2045 and bring M2s used in 1945 with them.
Whenever someone tells me that "you owe your military advancements to the Nazis", I point to the M2 machine gun as proof against this.
Biographics parts 1 & 2 , John M. Browning.
The Nuclear Falcon and the Genie are examples of nuclear air-to-air missiles. The idea is to increase kill radius. And at least in the Genie's case, the hope was to knock out whole formations of enemy bombers. This was WW2 thinking, of course, since in the Nuclear Age bombers generally go singly on missions.
It was to ensure you would score a kill, since missing meant a bomber would get through to nuke your cities, and early air to air missile tech was not considered reliable enough to bet on.
Ah! the Genie. The worlds first /UNGUIDED/ nuclear missile.
@@thomasstuart2936 Well, there was also the Davy Crockett at about that time... But it was never deployed, of course.
@@thomasstuart2936 Actually, on a technicality of what constitutes a missile, the nuclear weapon dropped on Hiroshuma was the first nuclear missile. This is in much the same way that a molotov cocktail thrown in a riot is considered to be a missile. It was however the first rocket-powered air-to-air mssile with a nuclear warhead.
I would guess that a nuclear-tipped Sidewinder would be intended for continental defense against bombers, in which case using small nukes on aircraft is totally NOT overkill, since those bombers are on their way to flatten your cities and you are already in a full scale nuclear war by that point.
It was also estimated that the neutron emissions from the detonation could disable the nukes themselves.
One wonders why you'd need a guidance system if you're just going to make a 1km fireball...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIR-2_Genie
My thought exactly.
To expand on what Titanium rain said. It was never about blowing mass formations of bombers out of the sky. We could determine from their tests what materials they used to make their bombs. The belief was an air burst close enough to the bombers would bathe the nukes in bombarding neutrons. It didn't make them not radioactive, it didn't render the chemical explosives used to compress everything and start the chain. BUT it would have kept our coasts from turning into glass.
This was a response to the Nike missile program (a ground radar guided system for intercepting bombers) The Nike in testing had increasing difficulty in getting close enough and providing a big enough blast to be effective.
>Nuclear tipped sidewinders
I wish I loved anything even half as much as cold war US generals loved being insane.
Missile technology is always fascinating
the missile knows where it is at all times. it knows this because it knows where it isn't
Did a report on the Aim 9 for my English class in high-school. I probably bored everyone to tears when I read it aloud. Wasn't quite a Simon Whistler when it came to that stuff.
Gotta remember Simon, in the eyes of the military, Overkill is Underrated!!
Well, sadly, one of the keys to war is to do things that are so devastating that your opponents don't want to continue the fight. So Overkill is inherent in weapons design
What Simon didn't mention describing combat with cannon and machine-guns is that pilots also had to judge /deflection/ - where the target would be when the bullets / shells - and to a lesser degree rockets as they were more often used in slower moving ground based targets - reached it, not where it /was/ when they opened fire. Using missiles negated judging deflection, especially 'Fire and Forget' types.
Simon acknowledged Taiwan!? There goes all his social credit. John Xina is gonna be pissed
Thrust-vectoring has been an operational technology for decades. I hope ensuing developments include self-defense of essential airborne command and control platforms.
still being made! Dec, 2021, Many many improvements over 50 years of continuous production, now longer range and faster versions being tested. Remember one shot at the range nearly forty years ago, it got the target with a nearly ninety degree lock off.
Thank goodness for sponsor/ad block! Love the videos
602 is also the area code for Phoenix, Arizona.
Suggested topic for (maybe for MEGA PROJECTS) is Navy IVY BELL, BORESITE, and BULLS EYE and HOLYSTONE Operations. Reference RED NOVEMBER book
Sidewinder:"I crave the forbidden heat signature..."
not sidewinder:"The missile knows where it is at all times. It knows this because it knows where it isn't. By subtracting where it is from where it isn't, or where it isn't from where it is (whichever is greater), it obtains a difference, or deviation."
The name "Sidewinder" derives from the flight path the missile took during testing. The characteristics of said rattlesnake sealed the deal.
Also, the F-86 Saber is equipped with six machine guns, not cannons. The USAF used cannon-armed F-4s over North Vietnam; Cs and Ds flew belly mounted gun pods, Es had internal nose-mounted cannons.
Not sure how much they are today, but 20 years ago an AIM-9 might cost $90,000.
Navy F-4s were never upgraded like the E was. They used gunpods, but most of the time flew missile-only payloads.
@@dumdumbinks274, corrected.
"Even by American standards.... overkill". Ha! That is hilarious!
I don't doubt that the Sidewinder will reach the centennial mark. With what concept can it be replaced? The heat-seeker will always be an option.
Ideas for videos... Proximity fuse in ww2, rocket sled test range thing, ford model T
Would you please make a video on the Grumman A6 Intruder ? It was, IMHO, the best attack aircraft that the Navy ever had. Thank you.
The Diamondback missile may have had the same reasoning as something like the Genie missile, that being a single missile could take out an entire formation of enemy planes
The Navy doesnt have pilots. They have aviators.
I always enjoy the military themed vids.
Simon not sure if you see this though, the videos of your various channels largely are universally appreciated throughout, and I am glad in confidence tp enjoy binging hours at a time :>
I Bet Simon Would Be An Awsome Dude To Hang Out With Over Beers
I remember reading that during the first Gulf War (early 1991) A-10 pilots were using the targeting systems of their Sidewinder missiles as rudimentary infrared imaging devices when flying at night. They'd activate the targeting system of a wing-mounted Sidewinder and use its infrared sensor to locate tanks and other large heat sources on the ground. It wasn't good enough for targeting necessarily but it got them close enough that by using other systems they were able to engage the target. Pretty sure that after that war the Air Force wasted very little time getting their Warthog pilots some genuine thermal imaging gear to use for this purpose and now of course the idea that a running vehicle can hide in the dark is a quaint and antiquated one. Anyone who has ever used or seen thermal imaging optics knows that such things are easier to find in pitch-dark at night than during broad daylight with the naked eye. And now of course thermal imaging has gotten so good at distinguishing and imaging slight differences in temperature that they work almost as well in the heat of the day as they do at night, which is something that would have amazed a soldier or pilot a decade or two ago.
Mavericks….. not sidewinders. The 1 single time an A10 attempted to actually use an AIM9-M it wouldn’t lock and they wound up shooting down a helicopter with the gun.
@@jh52663 Where you say 'use' you actually mean 'attempt to launch'. A-10 pilots did indeed use the Sidewinders IR seeker to locate targets which were then prosecuted with other munitions, from bombs to Berty the Avenger.
Not having much experience or knowledge about American fighters or military aircraft in general, what are the black squares shown on the F-35’s that have the white circles on them? They somewhat remind me of the little stickers you put over the holes in paper targets down on the range, and make me think of “these are the holes made in my hull that I’ve survived through”
Those were for testing. They provide reference points for tailing aircraft while the test aircraft is performing maneuvers or launching weapons.
My great grandfather worked on the heat seeking technology on the Sidewinder and some of her variants along with other secret weapons programs. At that time the base was called NOT (Naval Ordinance Testing) China Lake. I was born and raised (currently living) in the secret city. NAWS (Naval Air Weapons Station) China Lake is the largest weapons development and testing site in the world. There's a lot of desert out west. Simon you should do a video about NAWS China Lake and the early drone testing done here, I think you'll be surprised at what you find out about the place. Anyways back to the video I go. Thanks bow! this is going to be fun..
The MIM-72 Chaparral was a ground fired AIM-9 used in an Air Defense role.
My dear departed Mom had a pair of slippers that we called the sidewinder, pretty accurate even if you are on the run..🤣🤣
If you haven't made a video yet of it may I suggest the A10 Warthog
Now do one about the Sidewinder's anti-radiation variant, the Sidearm.
Not sure the US Navy employed guns on their F-4 Phantoms that much. The USAF did employ 20 mm gun pods a lot more often on the F-4C/D models and then redesigning the nose in the F-4E to accommodate the 20 mm gun internally. The US Navy instead concentrated on better dissimilar air combat techniques (DACT) to get the best out of their planes and missiles which let to the Top Gun program.
“….that Mediocrity can pay greatness…”
Lest we forget the the remainder that quote
I worked on 2 different merchant ships with metal patches kinda near the stacks after being struck by (practice) sidewinders
That part about the US’s use of guns in Vietnam is just plain wrong but mostly a good video.
Can you do a report on the Vietnam 2 conflict mentioned at 2:25 ?
Vietnam 2 is just the part that involved the US.
Please do the AIM-54 Phoenix missle
Ahem... Navy pilots never relied on guns in their F-4's. Because they never got any. The USAF's F-4E variant got itself an internal gun and on Vietnam the USAF adopted the SUU-16 and SUU-23 gun pods with M61 cannons, and used them for air to air over North Vietnam in somewhat limited numbers, but with great success.
Maybe do a video on the C-130. Not as sexy or sleek as a jet fighter or missile but they're coming up on the 70 year mark.
How about the YF-23 vs the YF-22.
PLEASE cover it...
Where did you get that figure for the Falklands conflict where the RAF have said time and time again that the sidewinder was NOT a game changer.
When have the RAF said that the Sidewinder was *not* a game changer? They've certainly tried to claim that the Sea Harrier was a game-changer (which is because of it's radar and AIM-9L), but never that the AIM-9 was not.
REALLY, really good content Simon, ESP the past few vids!!! 😉👍✌️
"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" isn't the real saying. The full proverb is "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery from the incompetent".
Always been a sucker for aviation, topics and TOYS on top of many others! 🤣
Side or Megaprojects alike!
what specific vehicle ✈🛩 is going to come next? - Surprise me, there are many more!
A nuclear tipped Aim 9 sidewinder is as hilariously OP as it is mortally dangerous.
Imagine being in a stealth, F-35 Lightning II responding to some sort of rogue state, let's say Iran, and you accidentally select to fire the nuke tipped, Aim-9 diamondback heat-seeking missile instead of the normal Aim-9x sidewinder which is "only" +80% effective.
All you had to do was quite literally look at the enemy F14-A, see Aim-9 and pull the trigger, and then the impact, is much, much brighter than it should be, be like "whoops, meant to send a normal one, instead I nuked you out of the sky, my bad"
aim-9 scary story...waiting for one of our hornets to land...catch the #3...but one sidewinder kept going skidding on the deck and off the angle. that was exciting!
Curious Droid has a hell of a video on the Sidewinder
I watched that video and its even better
Thank you I love your content
Thank you
great tech though not at first... with sidewinders choosing errant heat signatures like the ground or the sun, missiles failing to deploy from wing mounts or firing straight without tracking, pilots so worried by their potential for failure that the common tactic was to ripple-fire at least 3 at a time in hopes that one would track properly
Any game adverts you do Simon you should also do a video on brain blaze of you playing the game
What's similar between colt revolvers and sidewinders?
They're named after *snakes*
Heh SIDE-winder on SIDEprojects. Perfect fit.
Simon W. needs to go mainstream... this dude could sell ice to people in the Artic
gosh, imagine being ordered to be on the reverse engineering team that worked on that unexploded sidewinder
Overkill is under rated.
Some inaccuracies here but mostly a well made video.
Raytheon: they made a better product!?!? WE LOST THE CONTRACT!?!?!? Fvck it...buy them so we get the contract
Nuclear-tipped anti-air missiles overkill? Heh, have you heard of the Nike Hercules missile syatem? If I remember correctly, one of my instructors serving at the Iron Curtain mentioned they came with nuclear warheads😄
Fun fact: During the Korean war a sidewinder missile failed to explode when it hit a North Korean MiG. The MiG brought this missile all the way back to base with it stuck in the tail. Naturally the soviets spit their vodka out when they heard about this and rushed right over. They then reverse engineered it and that's how the soviet union got it's first air-to-air missile.
The sidewinder came after the korean war
Why is there a U.S. Air Force emblem of the side of an F9F, a Navy aircraft and the FJ-3 Furies looks like an F-86 which also has an Air force along with a Navy emblem.
Months have I search content like this with words like "1st fighter jet that use air to air missiles." I would like to know which fighter jet that use air to air missiles other than F86 Sabre and according to timeline as well. Which is 2nd fighter jet to use this technology until cold war era.
Ok so there’s two type of air-to-air weapons (excluding guns): rockets and missiles. AA rockets were first used in ww1 such as the Le Prieur rocket or RB-21 which were used by the Germans against Allied bomber formations. The AIM-4 was the world’s first operation air-to-air missile which were used on the F-89s and F-102s. F-86s used Aim-9s in the early eras of the Cold War.
Quick Simon! Merry Christmas to yourself! Gotta hit 10 channels by New Years!! 👍🏾👍🏾😂❤️❤️
He has 12 channels now
My grand father helped build and develop this missile so I might be a bit bias with this being the best missile ever made.
$400k per missile?! 😵😵😵😵😵😵😵😵😵😵😵😵
For something that has been around for nearly 70 years (regardless of continued improvements), that seems insane. With any other general technology product, you'd expect competition to drive the price down, with manufacturers looking for ways to improve production.
I guess that what you get when the main buyer has effective lly unlimited wealth and there are limited companies that can manufacture it.
I know the planes are millions of dollars, so using one or even a few missiles to take one out is a net win, it still seems like an insane cost per shoot.
EDIT: apparently this is actually considered a low cost per shot 😵
Great video as always
11:15 "... which allowed pilots to lock on to targets simply by looking at them, which is pretty rad" And only about 20 years after the rest of the world had already been doing it operationally. =)
Navy Phantoms were never equipped with guns. The USAF temporarily fixed it with the SUU-16 and SUU-23 gun pod, but neither were as effective. They added extra weight to the already heavy Phantom and weren't very accurate
I'm willing to bet that the only common component between the original Sidewinders and the current variants is the "AIM-9" paintjob on the side.
Pretty much like the FA18 Hornet and the FA18 Super Hornet. The Super Hornet was designed to look like the old normal Hornet pretty much just to fool congress into approving the project as they thought it was an incremental upgrade. Instead it is a completely different aircraft that shares virtually zero parts.
Genie air to air rocket.
During the Six Days War in 1967, Israel took several dozens of Soviet made K 13 AAM as booty, and altered them to Sidwinder capabilities
1:38 "me 109"
Simon nice video but I must correct you as the Falklands War air action was predominantly a Fleet Air Arm aviation conflict.
There’s no link in discription below for howitzer video
Might be a hard one to do, as howitzers have history well beyond the short US history, and there is a tendcy to reduce international thongs to just the American experience.
Now ya gotta do a video on the other one. The Sparrow Missile
400,000 dollars a pop eh? I wonder how much they really cost to make. Metal cylinder, 10 kg explosives, ball bearing shrapnel, printed circuit, CPU, infra red camera, a couple of actuators, fins, solid fuel propellant, proximity fuse, lithium battery, Wi-Fi module...
Simon. There is no overkill. There is only open fire and reload.
this channel is literally one of your side projects
Okay, so the speed of these things is 3 086 Kph, max distance is 35km, so a missile fired at a target at maximum range will reach it in... FOURTY-ONE SECONDS! God DAMN that's fast.
Awwww didn’t even talk about that odd variant that was radar guided
3:20 Except... the US already had IR guided weapons by the end of WWII? Is it common to forget the "Grapefruit" series of glide bombs and the VB-6 Felix?
Also sort of disappointed how the failure of the AIM-4, which used both semi-active radar and IR guidance, wasn't brought up or how early AAMs like the AAM-A1 Firebird weren't mentioned.
You know what they say- if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
Fox 2 lives on
I can confirm that the AIM was fired from a U.S. submarine off the cost of California. The sub was 50ft under water and hit it's target [a retired ship].
ad ends at 1:16
Right, Anti-missile missiles huh, mhm.. do they also have anti-missile missile missiles?
Target locked!
no mention of sidearm, the anti radiation version of sidewinder?
Fox 2!
What's the music at 8:46 ?
Cover the exocet…
Here's another joke:
russia and china: "nOo...! YOu can'T juST FirE miSsiles At uS!!!..."
Sidewinder: "...so anyways i go *YEET!!!* "
I assembled and tested a whole bunch of Sidewinders...and dragged them out to the fighters...mostly F-4E's.
Nuclear anti-aircraft missiles are intended to destroy entire formations of bombers. See the "Genie"
finally somebody who got the fuckin' joke lol
M2 .50 cal machin gun
A nuclear tipped air to air is insane. ENTIRELY unlike the brilliant crown jewel that is the thermonuclear landmine.