AIM-54 Phoenix
From Conservapedia
The AIM-54 Phoenix missile is a long range, high speed, air-to-air missile. It was designed by Hughes as a missile to be carried by the General Dynamics F-111,but the F-111 program was cancelled in 1969. Instead, it was adapted by the US Navy to be carried on their new fleet defense fighter, the Grumman F-14 Tomcat. The Phoenix was originally designed to kill, at long range, Soviet bombers, before they could fire short range cruise missiles at the aircraft carrier or its escorts. With that in mind, the Hughes designers gave it a range of 128 miles. The Tomcat's radar, which could reach 133 miles ahead of the fighter and 174 wide, can track up to 20 targets at one time and pick out four or six of them as targets for the Phoenix missiles. The Tomcat fired the missile, and from then on the missile's own radar took over, accelerating it at Mach 3.5 toward it's target. The main drawback to the Phoenix was that it was incredibly expensive--each missile costing about $500,000.[1]
It was very difficult to avoid a Phoenix, because the guidance system was programmed to take the missile up high, out of range of the target's radar, and then send it down at nearly Mach 4. The F-14 typically carried four Phoenixes and two AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles.
Besides the US Navy, Iran is the only other operator of the Phoenix. In 1976, the Grumman Corporation sold Iran 80 Tomcats and 633 Phoenix missiles. The missile performed with great renown in the Iranian Air Force. It shot down many Iraqi aircraft in the Iran-Iraq War, including eleven MiG-25s and five Tu-22 bombers.[2][3] Approximately half of the victories credited to F-14s in the war fell to Phoenixes. The Iranian Air Force still operates the AIM-54.
The missile is known to NATO forces under the code name "Fox 3."
Hughes AIM-54 Phoenix
Range: 128 miles
Warhead: High explosive 132 lbs
Weight: 975 pounds
Engine: Rocketdyne Mk 47 solid-propellant rocket
Speed: (cruising) Mach 3.5
Present operators: Iran
Previous operators: US Navy
References
- ↑ US Navy Fact File--AIM-54 Phoenix]
- ↑ Iranian Air-to-Air Victories, 1976-81
- ↑ Iranian Air-to-Air Victories, 1982-Today
Further Reading
- Iranian F-14 Units in Combat, by Tom Cooper and Farzad Bishop, Osprey Publishing, 2004
