The first portable anti-aircraft missile system, which was adopted by the US Army, was the FIM-43 Redeye (Red Eye) MANPADS. This complex was intended to destroy low-flying air targets, including helicopters, aircraft and drones of the enemy. The complex was developed by Convair, which at that time was a subsidiary of General Dynamics. The complex remained in service with the American army until 1995, although its massive replacement with an improved model of the Stinger MANPADS began in the early 1980s.
In total, during production in the United States, about 85 thousand FIM-43 Redeye portable complexes were produced, which were not only in service with the American army, but were also actively exported. MANPADS Redeye and its various modifications at different times were in service with 24 countries of the world, including Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, Jordan, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Thailand and other countries.
The development of the first prototypes of a light portable anti-aircraft missile system, which was intended to ensure the defense of military formations on the battlefield, was started by the American company Convair back in 1955. The first results of the work carried out were demonstrated by the US Department of Defense in 1956. But truly full-scale work on the design of a new portable complex, designated "Redeye", began only in April 1958.
MANPADS FIM-43 Redeye
In 1961, the first experimental firing of a new complex took place in the United States, which was originally indexed XM-41 (later XMIM-43). On December 14, 1962, a missile fired from a MANPADS being created successfully hit an air target QF-9F, which flew at a speed of 450 km / h at an altitude of 300 meters. At the same time, the US Department of Defense signed a contract for the serial production of the complexes already in 1964, without waiting for the official adoption of MANPADS by the American army. Such actions made it possible to carry out full-scale tests of the portable complex in various operating conditions: from "arctic" to "tropical". In 1968, the FIM-43 Redeye complex was finally adopted by the US Army and Marine Corps under the designation FIM-43A. Later in the United States, three more modifications of MANPADS were created with letter indices B, C and D.
The FIM-43 Redeye portable anti-aircraft missile system consists of the following parts:
- anti-aircraft guided missile in a transport and launch container;
- a launcher with an optical sight and a power source.
The launching device combines the elements that are necessary for launching a rocket. When preparing MANPADS for battle, this device is attached to a transport and launch container with a rocket. The SAM itself of the FIM-43 complex is a single-stage, it is made according to the aerodynamic "duck" scheme with cruciform rudders that open after launch in the head and a stabilizer in the tail.
A thermal homing head was placed in the head of the anti-aircraft guided missile, which tracked the air target by the thermal contrast of the engine, using the atmospheric transparency windows in the infrared range. This seeker was cooled with freon, the detector of the thermal homing head was made of lead sulphide. Behind the missile seeker is a compartment containing onboard equipment, which provides homing using the proportional approach method. Next is a high-explosive fragmentation warhead with a shock fuse, a fuse and a missile self-destructor. In the tail section there is a single-chamber solid-propellant rocket engine with starting and sustaining charges.
Evolution of FIM-43 Redeye MANPADS
The search for an air target and its tracking was carried out using a 2.5-fold optical sight with a viewing angle of 25 degrees. Fuses - contact and non-contact. The air target was hit by a high-explosive fragmentation warhead weighing just over a kilogram. From the inside, the two-layer body of the warhead had special grooves of the planned crushing, thanks to which, during the explosion, 80 fragments weighing 15 grams each were formed, the speed of expansion of these fragments was up to 900 m / s.
The M171 launcher of this MANPADS included a launch tube, which was made of fiberglass and served as a sealed container for an anti-aircraft missile, a launcher, a buttstock with a pistol grip and a shock-absorbing stop, as well as a sight in the casing. The MANPADS launcher was equipped with a fuse, a gyroscope activation lever, a trigger, a target lock signaling device, a fitting and a socket for connecting a battery. From the battery, power went to the electric circuit of the portable complex and freon to cool the sensitive element of the IR receiver of the homing head. A reticle was placed in the field of view of the optical sight, on which there was a main sighting thread and two neti for introducing a lead, as well as light signaling devices about the readiness of the seeker and about the capture of a target by it.
The FIM-43 Redeye portable complex is designed to engage various low-flying air targets in good visibility conditions. Shooting from the complex is carried out only on catch-up courses. To defeat the detected air target, the operator of the complex must prepare it for firing (switch the fuse to the firing position), capture the aircraft in the telescopic sight and track it. At the moment when the infrared radiation of the target begins to be perceived by the missile seeker receiver, the sound and visual indicators are triggered, which fix the target lock for the shooter. At this time, the operator of the complex continues to track the target through the sight, determining by eye the moment the target enters the launch zone, and then presses the trigger. After that, the onboard power supply of the anti-aircraft missile enters the combat mode, the starting charge of the propulsion system ignites. The missile launcher flies out of the launch tube, after which, at a distance of 4, 5-7, 5 meters from the shooter, the charge of the main engine is ignited. Approximately 1.6 seconds after launch, the missile warhead fuse was disconnected. The total time to prepare the rocket for launch takes about 6 seconds (the time is spent mainly on spinning the gyroscope), the battery life is 40 seconds. In the event that the missile misses the target, it self-destructs.
MANPADS FIM-43C Redeye after launch
The range of capture of an aerial target of a seeker of a rocket depends on the radiation power of the aircraft, for example, for a tactical fighter it was 8 kilometers. The probability of hitting air targets not making maneuvers with one missile of the complex was estimated at 0, 3-0, 5. There was no equipment for identifying the nationality of the target in the FIM-43 Redeye MANPADS. The use of a passive thermal homing head on the target did not require the operator of the complex to participate in the flight control process of the missile defense system after its launch. The principle of "fire and forget" was implemented, which greatly facilitated the process of training MANPADS operators. The main combat unit of the portable complex in the American army was a fire crew, which consisted of two people: an operator-gunner and his assistant.
An interesting detail is the fact that in the American specialized press already at the end of the 1980s it was noted that the Soviet MANPADS Strela-2 (9K32) was the result of the successful work of the military-technical intelligence agencies of the USSR, a modified military-industrial complex of the Soviet Union with the use of reverse engineering methods and successfully tested and put into service even earlier than its American original.
The main disadvantages of the American FIM-43 Redeye MANPADS were:
- the ability to hit aircraft only in the rear hemisphere;
- insufficiently wide viewing angle of the optical sight;
- low noise immunity of the thermal homing head, which made it possible to withdraw the missile defense from the combat course with the help of fired heat traps;
- short battery life - as a result, inexperienced and insufficiently trained operators did not always have time to get into the interval between the detection of an air target and the launch of the rocket.
Marine with Redeye on shoulder during exercise in the Philippines, 1982
American MANPADS "Redeye" were actively used by the mujahideen in Afghanistan against Soviet aviation during the Afghan war. The hostilities showed that the capture of targets by the thermal seeker of the rocket is possible for helicopters not equipped with EVU (screen-exhaust devices), only at a distance not exceeding 1500 meters, and with such a device - only one kilometer. In almost all cases, the shooting of thermal traps took the missiles of the complex off course, and the installation of the LVV166 "Lipa" impulse infrared jamming station on the helicopters reduced the probability of hitting missiles of the portable FIM-43 Redeye complex to almost zero. Also, the experience of combat use showed that both types of fuses used could not be called reliable. There were cases when the rocket flew a few centimeters from the helicopter body without exploding, and there were also cases when the rocket crashed on the armor in a direct hit or simply got stuck in the duralumin sheathing.
In total, from 1982 to 1986, the Afghan mujahideen shot down two Soviet Mi-24D combat helicopters, as well as one Su-25 attack aircraft, using the American FIM-43 Redeye MANPADS. In one of the cases, the rocket hit the NAR UB 32-24 block, which led to the detonation of the ammunition, the crew died. In the second case, an anti-aircraft guided missile hit the stern, causing a fire. Two more missiles aimed at the flames, which hit the Mi-24 in the gearbox and the root of the wing. As a result, the combat helicopter lost control and crashed, the crew was killed.
It is important to understand that the seeker of the original missile models was focused on the contrasting temperature silhouette of the aircraft body among a relatively uniform background environment. At the same time, on advanced models of MANPADS, including the Stinger complexes of the first generations, the missiles were aimed at the target at the jet engine nozzle (it generated the most intense radiation in the infrared spectrum). Despite its shortcomings, the Redeye complex has undergone several upgrades, remaining in service with the American army for a fairly long period of time.
The performance characteristics of the FIM-43C Redeye:
The range of targets hit is 4500 m.
The height of target destruction is 50-2700 m.
The maximum rocket speed is 580 m / s.
Maximum speed of targets hit: 225 m / s.
The caliber of the rocket is 70 mm.
Rocket length - 1400 mm.
The launch mass of the rocket is 8.3 kg.
The mass of the missile warhead is 1, 06 kg.
The mass of the complex in the firing position is 13.3 kg.
The preparation time for rocket launch is about 6 seconds.
