AIM-7 Sparrow

AAM-N-2 Sparrow I (AIM-7A)

The development of the RIM-7 Sparrow rocket began as early as 1947, when the US Navy signed a contract with Sperry to develop a saddled-beam guidance system for the conventional 127-mm HVAR ( High Velocity Aerial Rocket - high - speed aviation (uncontrolled) ) rocket ). Initially, the project was designated as KAS-1, but in 1948 the designation was changed to AAM-N-2.

It soon turned out that the 127-mm rocket had insufficient diameter to accommodate the necessary equipment. Especially to solve this problem, a larger 203 mm rocket was developed, which was tested back in 1948. Nevertheless, the development of the control system was slow and the first successful interception of an air target by a new missile was carried out only in December 1952.

The AAM-N-2 rocket (known as the Sparrow I ) was adopted by the US Navy McDonnell F-3 Demon interceptors in 1956. It was equipped with an Aerojet engine and carried a 20-pound high-explosive warhead. Guidance was carried out by the method of "sedimented beam" - the carrier aircraft held the target in the narrow beam of the radar of its airborne radar, and the rocket moved toward the target, automatically keeping itself within the beam path. The pilot deployment of the system revealed many shortcomings associated with the fundamental limitations of the control system: the inability to use guidance at low altitudes due to the reflection of the rotating beam of the radar from the surface, the rapid decrease in accuracy with increasing distance to the target, due to the expansion of the rotating beam. About 2000 Sparrow I missiles were manufactured, but they were in operation for a very short time and in the early 1960s after the advent of the AIM-9 Sidewinder, all beam-riding versions were withdrawn from service.

AAM-N-3 Sparrow II (AIM-7B)

The inadequate capabilities of the first modification of the rocket forced the US Navy to seek alternative guidance methods. In the early 1950s, even before the rocket was adopted for service, Raytheon proposed equipping it with an active radar-guiding head that implements the principle of " shot-and-forget ." The missile was assigned the AAM-N-3 index and the designation "Sparrow II". Experimental development began in 1951-1952, but until 1955 did not give satisfactory results. Only in 1956 was it possible to equip the ARLGSN AN / APQ-64 missile, but by this time the fleet no longer considered the project promising.

Work, however, continued at the request of the Canadian Air Force, who became interested in the missile as a means of arming its interceptors. A number of missiles were tested in the period from 1957 to 1958, but it quickly became clear that the limited size of the missile’s radar antenna at the level of technology of that time did not allow achieving any acceptable performance of active homing. In September 1958, the development program for this variant of the rocket was finally closed.

AAM-N-6 Sparrow III (AIM-7C / AIM-7D / AIM-7E)

In 1955, Raytheon began work on a version of the Sparrow rocket, using semi-active radar guidance with target irradiation with a carrier radar. After the production of Sparrow I was completed in 1956, the company received all the production and technical capacities of the project and became the main manufacturer of the entire line of Sparrow missiles.

In 1958, a missile with a semi-active seeker was presented for testing at the Navy. It was equipped with an Aerojet solid-fuel engine, but unlike earlier models, it carried a 30-pound rod warhead Mk 38. The radius of the missile was about 11 km. The missile successfully passed the tests and in 1958 entered service, quickly replacing the previous modification of the Sparrow I.

AAM-N-9 Sparrow X

A variant of a missile with a nuclear warhead W-42. The project was developed in 1958 but was not developed.

The following structures were involved in the development and production of Sparrow missiles ^[2] :

AIM-7E missiles were first used in the Vietnam War. Despite the optimistic expectations of the US Navy, the missile was inconvenient to use and not effective enough. Due to the imperfection of the recognition system of the “friend or foe” missile carrier aircraft, which forced the pilots to approach the enemy for visual identification of the target, they almost never succeeded in using the long-range missile: in the melee mode, the missile was inferior to the AIM-9 Sidewinder .

A tangible drawback of semi-active guidance was the need for the carrier aircraft to keep the target in the beam of the airborne radar so that the homing missile received the reflected signal. In maneuverable aerial combat, this significantly limited the capabilities of the carrier. As a result, the probability of hitting a target with one AIM-7 rocket at that time was no more than 10%, nevertheless, about 55 Vietnamese aircraft were shot down using (total) 600 AIM-7 missiles. In addition, the American F-4 Phantom II fighters accidentally sunk two of their own patrol boats with these missiles and inflicted damage on the American destroyer and the Australian cruiser. ^{[3] [4] [5] [6] [7]}

In 1973, over California, the latest fourth-generation American interceptor, the F-14A Tomcat , using the AIM-7E missile, shot down "itself." During the launch, the rocket tore the fuel tanks of the aircraft and it collapsed. ^[eight]

In October 1973, during the Doomsday War, Israeli F-4 Phantom fighters launched 49 of the 106 available AIM-7 missiles. ^[9]

After the war, they tried to modernize the rocket - the United States did not have other long-range missiles adapted for installation on any fighter (the AIM-54 Phoenix was very massive and could only be based on specially equipped aircraft). However, the main drawback - the need to irradiate the target with radar, could not be fixed. During the Gulf War, AIM-7M missiles showed slightly better results, reaching a hit probability of about 40%. About 26 Iraqi aircraft were shot down at the cost of launching 71 missiles. 6 “Mirage”, 2 MiG-25, 6 MiG-23, 4 MiG-29, 1 Il-76, 1 Su-7, 2 Su-22, 2 helicopters (Mi-24 and presumably Mi- 8), as well as another 1 Su-22 after the end of hostilities ^[10] .

Israel also used AIM-7 in combat. During the Lebanon war in June 1982, these missiles shot down 10 Syrian MiG-21 and MiG-23 aircraft ^[11] .

In the 2000s, due to the advent of the more advanced AIM-120 AMRAAM , the Sparrow was withdrawn from service, but remains in reserve. In addition, the ship-based missile variant, the RIM-7 Sea Sparrow , remains in service with the fleet, as does its improved version of the RIM-162 ESSM .

• Starting weight: 231.2 kg
• Warhead weight: 39 kg
• Front hemisphere launch range: 70 km
• Length: 3.66 m
• Diameter: 0.203 m
• Wingspan: 0.81 m
• AIM-7E engine operating time: 2.8 sec. ^[12]
• Mach 4 speed

• AIM-7A - the first rocket in the Sparrow family, guided by the method of "saddled beam." Limited production in 1956-1958, a total of about 2,000 missiles were manufactured, and in 1958 it was withdrawn from service.
• AIM-7B - modification of a missile with an active radar homing head. It was developed in the 1950s, initially by order of the US Navy, then by order of the Canadian Air Force. Due to technical problems, the development was not completed.
• AIM-7C - the first version of a missile with semi-active radar guidance. Used an Aerojet engine and a rod warhead Mk 38 weighing 30 kg. Adopted in 1958, replacing the "Sparrow I".
• AIM-7D (AIM-101) - realizing that the Sparrow I base design has become obsolete, in 1959, Raytheon engineers launched a new version of the AAM-N-6a rocket equipped with the Thiokol Mk 6 mod 3 liquid fuel engine. Due to the higher "energy" characteristics of a liquid-propellant rocket engine, it was possible to almost triple the combat radius, which for the first time in the history of air-to-air missiles reached 32 km. The speed of the rocket also increased significantly to almost 4 M, which made it possible to effectively intercept supersonic air targets. About 7500 missiles manufactured.
• AIM-7E is an improved version of AIM-7D. On this rocket, they again returned to the solid-fuel engine using slowly burning fuel, which allowed to increase the range to 35 km (with a frontal attack, with an attack in the rear hemisphere - about 5.5 km). Launched in production in 1963, replacing old models in the fleet's arsenal. About 25,000 missiles were manufactured.
  •   R-25 - unlicensed Soviet copy, developed since 1967. On November 13, 1967, Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 1046-38 was issued on the start of work on the R-25 missile, which was a copy of AIM-7E. The missile was intended to arm the new MiG-23 multirole fighter. OKB “Vympel” was designated the head institution for the development of the rocket, A. L. Lyapin was appointed chief designer of the R-25, the homing head for the rocket was developed at the Kulon Design Bureau under the leadership of N. A. Viktorov. The warhead of the rocket is a rod . Proponents of the development of another Soviet R-23 missile managed to justify the futility of continuing work on the GOS, which implements the conical scanning method (as was done in AIM-7E), in favor of the more promising single-pulse radar GOS RGS-23 for the R-23 RVVV. As a result, the parallel development of the R-25 rocket ended with the manufacture of several prototypes and was discontinued at the beginning of flight tests due to a delay in terms and tactical and technical characteristics of the R-23 ^[13] .
• AIM-7F is a version developed from Sparrow’s use in the Vietnam War. Used the new dual-mode solid fuel engine Aerojet Mk 65 (the radius of action increased to 70 km) and a completely new solid-state electronics (microcircuits) instead of electronic vacuum tubes. The new AN / DSQ-35 control system has been adapted for use with aircraft equipped with modern (for that time) radars. The mass of the warhead was increased to 39 kg. The rocket was in production from 1975 to 1981.
• AIM-7G is a rocket version developed in the 1970s with a new guidance system for F-111D fighters. Not received development.
• AIM-7M is the most advanced version of a missile with a monopulse radar seeker that improves the missile’s ability to hit low-flying targets and counteract radio suppression. The control system included a digital computer, with the possibility of reprogramming. The missile received a new high-explosive fragmentation warhead WDU-27 / B, weighing 39 kg.
• AIM-7P - a modification produced since 1987. The on-board computer of the rocket is modified to interact with the on-board systems of the aircraft in flight. The missile is equipped with a communication channel with the carrier and can receive corrections according to the course from the carrier aircraft, which increases the efficiency of the system.
• AIM-7R is a modification developed since 1992. It had a new dual-mode radar / infrared homing head, which allows the use of a rocket in conditions of intense jamming by the enemy. The advent of the more advanced AIM-120 AMRAAM led to the abandonment of the project in 1997.

• AIM-7 at globalsecurity.org
• Andreas Parsch. Raytheon AAM-N-2,3,6 / AIM-101 / AIM-7 / RIM-7 Sparrow Directory of US Military Rockets and Missiles . Website Designation-Systems.Net (2002). Date of treatment September 20, 2011. Archived March 3, 2012.