Some facts about the Stinger missile

(See updates, below.)

Here are some facts about the Stinger missile from its Army PDF fact sheet.

Description and Specifications

Stinger is a fire-and-forget infrared/ultraviolet (IR/UV) missile system. This missile homes in on the heat emitted by fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and other targets. Stinger uses an eject motor to propel the missile a safe distance away from the gunner; a flight motor then ignites and propels it to the target. A proportional navigation system enables it to fly an intercept course to the target. The Stinger program has evolved from the Redeye, to Stinger Basic, followed by Stinger Post, to the Stinger Reprogrammable Microprocessor (Stinger-RMP). The Block I software and hardware changes to the Stinger-RMP missile provide a greatly improved capability to engage advanced cruise missile and UAV threats.

Guidance: Passive infrared and ultraviolet homing
Speed: Supersonic
Navigation: Proportional with lead bias
Weight: 34.5 lbs
Diameter: 2.75 in
Length: 60 in
Prime Contractor: Raytheon (Tucson, AZ)

Updates
The pursuit speed of a Stinger is classified, but is reportedly as fast as Mach 2.2.

For a good photo of a Stinger hitting a F-14 Tomcat fighter in a test, click here.

What all these specs and system upgrades mean is that if a Stinger locks onto your airplane, you're screwed, especially if your plane is a slow-moving airliner. The only redeeming fact is that the Stingers the CIA sent to the mujahideen to use against the Soviets, back in the 1980s, are old models and not nearly as capable as the present ones. Even so, they scored a 79 percent kill rate, downing more than 270 Soviet aircraft.

Compared to earlier AA shoulder-fired missiles, including the older Soviet-era SA-7, the 1980s-legacy Stingers advantages are:

It is faster and is an "all aspect" weapon, meaning it can home in on an aircraft from any angle - front, side, rear. The others could only home in from the rear.

The Stinger's warhead is more powerful.

Update, June 4
I meant to post this update earlier, but events intervened. Steven den Beste, back at the helm of USS Clueless after a vacation break, adds:

It is true that the Stingers given to the Mujahadeen had a good success rate (though I'm not sure I believe any 79% kill rate especially in the hands of unskilled users) but the majority of them were being fired at helicopters and those are much easier to hit than jets.

The 79 percent kill rate came from a West Point research paper. The Stinger shooters were not exactly untrained; they got training in Pakistan by CIA. And if their targets were mostly Soviet helicopters (Steven is correct here), then a high accuracy rate isn't so incredible.

. . . the Stinger has a ceiling of about 5,000 feet. If you're higher than that, it isn't capable of climbing high enough to reach you. It's also got a limited horizontal range but I don't know what it is; probably no more than three or four miles.

According to a US Marine Corps fact sheet, the Stinger's ceiling is 10,000 feet, and it's slant range is up to eight kilometers (just under five miles).

our military aircraft now have detectors for incoming projectiles, and when such are detected they drop flares. The flares are brilliant and extremely hot, and a heat seeker will prefer them. Also, they dump a bunch of them at once, and the aircraft gets lost in all the heat noise that is created. Here's a picture of an AC-130 doing it:

http://denbeste.nu/images/ac_130.jpg

Once the Soviets knew that the Mujahadeen had Stingers, they were able to reduce losses of cargo planes at Kandahar to nearly nothing by routinely dropping flares during takeoffs and landings.

Yes, the flares are pretty effective. I am sure that the Special Mission aircraft flying out of Andrews AFB are so equipped - Sgt Stryker would know for sure, since he just left duty at that wing, but his lips are no doubt sealed. Obviously, civilian airliners don't have the flares.

Military helicopters have also used infrared jammers for many years. These are heat emitters of the right frequency, usually located behind the engine pod on top. They work by scattering infrared radiation in random directions away from the chopper. Hopefully, the missile's seeker will reject the scattered infrared as a valid lock and will keep seeking elsewhere.

The Stinger made a really big difference in the 1980's. But the ones that the Mujahadeen had then are not only old and relatively primitive, but it's virtually certain that any remaining ones are nonfunctional now. The components decay with time; batteries wear out, and the propellent in the rockets goes bad unless it's properly stored and maintained.

This is really the key point. Shoulder-fired missiles are manufactured in other countries, Nork Korea, for example. While only the US makes Stingers, I am not so certain that 1980s-era Stingers could not be maintained by other countries. Iran certainly knew how to store and field Stingers during Operation Earnest Will. Would Iran or North Korea be able to make batteries and other components? Maybe, maybe not. My guess is that Steven is right and that the missiles are pretty much inoperable. But we do not know.

Steven, thanks for reading and writing and welcome back online!