Who Cares About Stealth: This Missile Transformed Air Combat Forever
The active radar homing air-to-air missile, that is.
by Charlie Gao
At the end of the Cold War, there were major revolutions in the technology used for aerial combat. The most visible one was stealth, with the iconic diamond shaped F-117 and B-2 stealth bombers and the F-22 stealth fighter. But a second revolution was underway, with major implications for the USAF and other air forces. The active radar homing (ARH) air-to-air missile began to replace semi-active radar homing (SARH) air-to-air missiles as the primary medium and long-range missiles that armed every fighter.
But how exactly did this revolution occur? Why were the 1980s a big turning point? What’s the future of active radar homing missiles?
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/who-cares-about-stealth-missile-transformed-air-combat-forever-35092
