Jai Hind

Aviation topic of the day
Different Air to Air missiles 

                     Su30mki firing Astra BVRAAM 

Whenever on observing a cockpit flight footage carefully featuring Air to Air missiles you must have also heard the pilot saying FOX 1/FOX 2 or FOX 3 so I will explain all these

1st things 1st what are these FOX 1,2,3
They are nothing but general military ordinance deployment codes which is used by the pilot in case he/she fires any Air to Air missile
The motive behind is to let your allies know which type of missile you have fired so that your allies can take sufficient evasive action

TYPES OF AIR TO AIR MISSILES 
1) SEMI ACTIVE RADAR GUIDANCE MISSILE 
(Military ordinance code     FOX 1)

It is a type of Air to Air missile which requires Terminal guidance via Radar of the Mothership(Aircraft from which missile is fired)
All the way until the missile hits its Target if the Terminal guidance is broken Midway through the course of the missile the missile will get stupid (Lose track of the enemy)
Example
American made
AIM 7 SPARROW

Russian made
R 27 ER

French made
Magic 1

2)IR SEEKER MISSILE
(Military ordinance code 
FOX 2)

In this type of missile there are IR(HEAT) Seeking sensor right in the front part of the missile
Which detects heat signatures by the targeted aircraft (Afterburners) and guides itself towards the target
Therefore no Terminal guidance is required for this missile but these missiles have a comparitively small Range 
Example
American made
AIM 9X

Russian made
R 73
This was the missile Wing commander Abhinandan Sir used to shoot down the hostile F 16 when the Pakistani Air Force retaliated to the next day of the balakot Air strike

Indian made
ASTRA IR
Status- Under development
Estimated year for trails
2022

French made
Magic 2

3) ACTIVE RADAR GUIDANCE MISSILE
(Military ordinance code.   FOX 3)

The most complex from other 2 missiles is the this one
The active Radar guided missile 
It has its own Radar or Source of guidance integrated within the missile which makes it capable to engage Long Range targets
The missile acquires the coordinates of the hostile from the Mothership 

The path travelled by an active guidance missile is a bit complex so just bear with me I think then you will get it

Once an active Radar guided missile is fired initailly it uses the Terminal guidance of the Mothership just like the FOX 1 missile via datalink (Coordinates of the hostile)
Once The terminal guidance is broken the Active Radar guided missile switches on its own Radar to guide itself towards it's Target
Example
American made
AIM 120 C
AIM 54 PHONEIX

Russian made
R 77

Indian made
Swadeshi and making IAF atmanirbhar in missile tech

ASTRA

French made
MICA 
METEOR

Now whenever you hear something as FOX 1,2,3 now you are smart enough to know about this 
That's all for today 

Author - Aryan Jaiswal 

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