The FIM-92 Stinger, introduced in 1981, is a shoulder-fired missile in a roughly 35-pound tube that reaches over Mach 2.5 and hits targets up to 15,700 feet away. It replaced the FIM-43 Redeye, which could only chase an aircraft's exhaust after it had already passed overhead. The Stinger's all-aspect seeker sees heat from air friction on the nose and wings, and later POST and RMP variants added a dual infrared and ultraviolet seeker that rejects flares. A small ejection motor kicks the missile clear of the gunner before the main motor fires, a battery coolant unit chills the seeker with pressurized argon, the processor runs on four kilobytes of RAM, and the missile self-destructs after 17 seconds without a hit.
After a limited debut with the British SAS in the 1982 Falklands War, the Stinger reached the Afghan mujahideen through the CIA's Operation Cyclone, pushed by Representative Charlie Wilson. The mujahideen claimed a 79 percent kill rate and 269 Soviet aircraft, figures analysts doubt, but Soviet helicopters were forced to fly higher. In 1990 the U.S. began a $55 million buyback, paying about $183,000 per missile, yet hundreds went missing. After 2022 shipments to Ukraine drained about a quarter of the U.S. stockpile, Raytheon told the Pentagon the seeker relied on microelectronics no longer made anywhere and recalled retired engineers to redesign it.
The episode reports that the Secret Service does not deny long-standing rumors of Stingers in the presidential motorcade, though the real plan is to drive away.
Missing Stingers are tracked to Iran, North Korea and insurgents in Sri Lanka.
Battery coolant units expire after four to five years, which should disable old missiles.
Insurgents in the Syrian civil war bypassed dead thermal batteries by wiring launchers to ordinary car batteries.
The Red Wasp program would add a ramjet to extend range against drones while the Army seeks a replacement by 2026.
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