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Spartan-120
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 Posted: Sep 21, 2007 - 06:45 AM
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Enthusiast
Joined: Sep 21, 2007 - 06:27 AM
Posts: 37
Status: Offline
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| Do US air to air missiles have a self destruct mechanism on them that goes off when the target is lost or when the fuel runs out? I could have sworn there was one to frag an escaping enemy which has broken lock and to prevent enemy forces from getting their grubby mitts on it, and to keep unexploded rounds from harming civilians. |
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Sponsor
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 Posted: May 25, 2013 - 12:36 AM
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F-16.net Sponsor
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ACMIguy
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Posted: Sep 21, 2007 - 02:00 PM
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Forum Veteran
Joined: Jul 11, 2007 - 06:13 PM
Posts: 667
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ViperDude
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Posted: Sep 21, 2007 - 03:34 PM
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Senior member
Joined: Feb 15, 2006 - 04:06 PM
Posts: 252
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No, the air to air missiles do not have a self destruct, if they lose the target or run out of fuel they fall to the earth. However, in the Flight Test world when testing missiles (most are inert) they are instrumented with a self destruct ring that breaks the missile in half, so they can be destroyed if it looks like they will go off range or near the civilian population.
Cheers,
ViperDude |
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Guysmiley
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Posted: Sep 21, 2007 - 04:00 PM
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Elite 1K
Joined: May 26, 2005 - 08:39 PM
Posts: 1496
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Once they get close to being done falling the odds are pretty good the target detector is going to sense the missile is nearing an object. The AIM-9M/X use an active laser proximity fuse. The AMRAAM (I think) uses a passive optical target detector.
In any case my layman's best guess is a munition with a proximity fuse will probably detonate when it gets close enough to a planet...  |
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