AIM-92 Stinger

	PUBLICATION
	Jane's Air Launched Weapons 1995-96
	SECTION
	Air-To-Air Missiles
	TITLE
	AIM-92 Stinger
	TYPE
	Short range IR air-to-air missile

COMPANIES
Hughes Missile Systems, (prime contractor) Raytheon, Bedford, Massachusetts (second source)

DEVELOPMENT
The Air-To-Air Stinger (ATAS) programme provides a sensitive lightweight IR missile for use at short range against low flying aircraft and helicopter targets.  Stinger improvements include Stinger Post and Stinger RMP, the former incorporating a dual colour IR and UV seeker for decoy discrimination and the latter a reprogrammable microprocessor.  Hughes developed a dual mode seeker for Stinger, adding a passive radar seeker to the existing I R/UV seeker, in a version known as Air Defense Suppression Missile (ADSM).

DESCRIPTION
The ATAS system consists of the FIM-92 Stinger missile, a launcher with launcher electronics, launcher adaptor, coolant reservoir, interface electronics unit and the fire control and aiming system.  The most common helicopter launcher in use is the two missile, lightweight, stackable, quick reload launcher.  The FIM-92 Stinger missile is a short-range infra-red homing missile powered by a solid propellant motor and armed with a fragmentation warhead.  For the current ATAS system, the early Stinger guidance seekers are believed to have all been replaced by the later Stinger Passive Optical Seeker Technology (POST) and Reprogrammable MicroProcessor (RMP) seekers.

SPECIFICATIONS

7.13