Difference between revisions of "AIM-54 Phoenix"

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- The AIM-54 Phoenix missile is a long range, high speed 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
-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.
-  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 1986, the
- [[Grumman Corporation]] sold Iran 80 Tomcats and 633 Phoenixes.  The missile performed with
-great renown in the Iranian Air Force.  It shot down many Iraqi aircraft in the [[Iran-Iraq War]].
- The Iranian Air Force still operates the AIM-54.
-     Hughes AIM-54 Phoenix
-Range: 128 miles
-Warhead: High explosive, 132
-Weight: 975 pounds
-Engine: Rocketdyne Mk 47 solid-propellant rocket
-Speed: (cruising) Mach 3.5
- Present operators: Iran
-Previous operators: US Navy

Difference between revisions of "AIM-54 Phoenix"

Revision as of 02:01, March 6, 2008

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