Half a century ago,
the U.S. Sidewinder air-to-air heat seeking missile (AIM-9A) scored its first
kill, when a Taiwanese pilot, in an American F-86, brought down a Chinese
MiG-17. The Sidewinder entered service in 1956, and has since been the most
effective air-to-air missile ever produced. The latest model, the AIM-9X,
entered service in late 2003, and thus missed the Iraq invasion. But over the
last eight years, the 9X has been fired
in nearly 140 tests, including many that used drone aircraft as targets, and
live warheads on the Sidewinders.

The first Sidewinder (AIM-9B) was 9.28
feet long, weighed 156 pounds and had a max range of five kilometers . The most
current one (AIM-9X) [VIDEO], half a century later, is 9.5 feet long, weighs 191 pounds
and has a max range of over 20 kilometers. The AIM-9X can go after the target
from all angles, while the AIM-9B could only be used from directly behind the
target. The AIM-9X is about seven times more likely to bring down the target
than the AIM-9B.

The Sidewinder has nearly 300 kills
world-wide to date. Thus for every 380 Sidewinders manufactured, only one
brought down an enemy aircraft. Only about one percent of all Sidewinders ever
even got used in combat. The vast majority of the 110,000 built, spent their
careers being carried by fighters, or stored away, waiting for a war. For that
reason, the missile is designed for easy upgrades. Many of those in service
have some components that are over twenty years old. The missile itself, is
more like an aircraft component, than an expendable weapon. The Sidewinder was
originally conceived and developed in the shadows and off the books. The U.S. Navy
engineers who created it over a ten year period, had to scrounge for money and
materials, and many volunteered their labor. The basic concepts of the
Sidewinder were developed during World War II, but producing a practical and
reliable weapon seemed far beyond current technology. By the end of the 1950s, American
air warfare experts believed that the missile was going to replace cannon as
the main armament of fighters. That didn't happen right away, but gradually it
did.

More powerful AESA radars, and longer
range (50-100+ kilometers) missiles like AMRAAM, are put forward as the next
revolution in air warfare. These missiles have built in radar, or are guided by
the launching aircrafts radar. Unlike heat seeking missiles, these radar guided
ones have not had as much combat experience, or success. But as more aircraft
are armed with the longer range missiles and radars, more combat will take
place between pilots who cannot see each other's aircraft.