How about the Stingers, the portable missiles that the US sends to Ukraine to shoot down Russian planes?

After the Russian invasion, the United States agreed for the first time Sending man-made Stinger missiles to Ukraine As part of a package approved by the White House last Friday to support Ukrainian forces in an effort to curb the advance of Russian troops.

These types of missiles are very useful in shooting down planes and helicopters, aircraft used by invading troops to attack Ukraine. The missile uses the Infrared Seeker to lock heat from the engine exhaust and strike anything flying below 3,000 meters.

I.e., This type of missile, officially called FIM-92A, is designed for ground forces to counter low-flying enemy aircraft. In the last few hours, pictures Disastrous bombardment of Russian aircraft against military and civilian targets.

Similarly, low-flying aircraft and helicopters are generally a major threat because in addition to attacking targets, They can perform surveillance missions, as well as insert, disassemble, or re-deploy their forces.

The missile and its missile weighs about 15 kg, making it a very light and easily movable weapon. The launcher is reusable and each projectile weighs about 10 kg.

These properties mean that its use does not require a large number of troops. With only one uniformed officer, it is sufficient to use shoulder-to-shoulder stinger missiles. However, there are usually two people operating the device.

It is a weapon It uses a passive infrared search engine capable of capturing the heat generated by the aircraft’s engine. It is called “passive” because, unlike a radar-guided missile, it does not emit radio waves to “find” its target.

They identify the ultraviolet “shadow” of the target They use that identification to distinguish the target from other heat generating materials.

Before firing the weapon, the soldier aims at the target. Once the seeker is positioned, it produces a characteristic sound. Pulling the trigger blows the missile. Then, The launcher disassembles and ignites the main engine of the solid rocket. The rocket propels the stinger at 1,500 mph.

Reaching an airplane flying below 3,000 meters, it can fly up to a distance of about eight kilometers.

As explained by the portal How the material worksWhen the missile flies, The image of the plane you are trying to hit may not be in the middle of the image sensor. When this happens, the exit of the projectile and the guidance system must determine how to return to the path. At that point proportional navigation comes into operation.

The missile observes the offset angle and proportionally adjusts the angle of its flight using an amplifier. That is, if the amplifier is 2, and the navigation system thinks you are 10 degrees off course, it will change the direction of your flight to 20 degrees. Then, after ten seconds, it will look at the angle again and it will change again.

That correction would allow the missile to know in advance the trajectory of the moving aircraft.

For now, it is not known when the Stinger missiles will be delivered, but officials have indicated that Washington works on the ship’s logistics.

The move came after the Biden government accepted it Following Germany’s announcement that it would send 500 Stinger missiles and other weapons and supplies to Ukraine.

Faced with an urgent need to control the advance of Russian troops, Ukrainian officials have demanded that more powerful weapons be sent to them.

Estonia has been supplying stingers to Ukraine since January, in order to do so it would have to get approval from the United States. The Dutch government, for its part, announced last Saturday that it would send 200 stinger-type surface-to-air missiles “as soon as possible”, as well as other supplies such as 2,000 combat helmets and armor plates; 30 metal detectors and two wire-guided landmine detection robots; Two surveillance radars and five weapons location radars; And 100 sniper rifles with 30,000 rounds of ammunition.

In the new generation equipment owned by the Ukrainian army Javelin and NLAW missiles also stand outCapable of destroying Russian tanks and shields.

On January 17, just before the Russian invasion, C-17 cargo planes of the British Royal Air Force arrived in Kiev. Secretary of Defense of the United Kingdom Ben WallaceBoris Johnson’s government decided to “provide Ukraine with light anti-armor defense systems.”

The United States, for its part, began shipping its own anti-Javelin anti-tank missiles to Ukraine in 2018. In December last year, it approved an additional $ 200 million arsenal, including several such missiles.

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