This was interesting interview by retired USN Commander Glenn Tierney. It's around 67 minutes long, so it's a lot, but there was something he mentioned that was interesting at around 25-31 minutes in he mentioned tests that he carried as a test pilot and officer in charge of GMU-61 (Guided Missile Unit).
He mentioned that either the USAF or somebody had heard about the tests (and this might be the competition that led to the USAF adopting the Sidewinder) and they were ordered to Holloman AFB to carry out tests with the Sidewinder. They mentioned that firing it against the white-sands of New Mexico presented a problem for a thermal-seeking missile but they had a device called a chopper-reticle in the guidance-section that effectively home in on a one-to-one signal-to-noise ratio and successfully hit targets even with a large thermal background. He even stated that it could be fired with nearly the Sun as a backdrop and successfully hit its target.
I find this puzzling since the AIM-9's often ended up chasing the Sun in Vietnam, and the Israelis had shitloads of these missiles end up simply flying into the desert.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TONlAT6w5wk
buffnut453
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tyrodtom
He mentioned that either the USAF or somebody had heard about the tests (and this might be the competition that led to the USAF adopting the Sidewinder) and they were ordered to Holloman AFB to carry out tests with the Sidewinder. They mentioned that firing it against the white-sands of New Mexico presented a problem for a thermal-seeking missile but they had a device called a chopper-reticle in the guidance-section that effectively home in on a one-to-one signal-to-noise ratio and successfully hit targets even with a large thermal background. He even stated that it could be fired with nearly the Sun as a backdrop and successfully hit its target.
I find this puzzling since the AIM-9's often ended up chasing the Sun in Vietnam, and the Israelis had shitloads of these missiles end up simply flying into the desert.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TONlAT6w5wk
buffnut453
,
G
Glider
,
GreenKnight121
,
X
XBe02Drvr
,
T
tyrodtom
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