I hope for Gods sake that at least the Americans on this board have tripple checked that the information that there giving out on this board is available from non-secure sights already and has been declassified. Some of the Stuff I'm reading about (like minimum arming distance come very close to being secure information - you never know what a potential adversary can do with the information you give him)

If you are referring to comments earlier in thread re min range, always sound advice to those exposed to classified info at some point, but you are way late as the post was in April and poster may not return. Still sound advice though.

This is a pretty good discussion. I'm surprised no one has mentioned the python 4 or 5. It seems that until they acquire the JSF, the Israeli's are depending on upgrading f-16's, f-15's, and air to air missiles. An israeli f-15I armed with amraam and python 5 missiles would be tough to deal with. Not to mention, an israeli JSF armed with amraam and python 5 would be almost impossible to defeat-only by using the f-22.

Well, it wasn't the original question, but...the first reply asked about Python V as well. Guess nobody knew enough to respond. By your "handle" (IAFbestintheworld), I presume you have an opinion. Python IV was the first SRM development to respond to the surprise of AA-11 and just missed being the US solution as well. Incompatibility with internal carriage in F/A-22 doomed its "rating" in the AIM-9X Cost and Operational Effectiveness Analysis (COEA) and ultimately excluded its consideration. There was a groundswell in the USAF community that asked for Python IV as an interim solution. The procurement process works though would mean the R&D funding for AIM-9X would have to be tapped and your interim solution would be only solution so US lived for years with second best weapon after decades of always being a step ahead in MRM and SRM weapons vis a vis the Soviet Union. This was primarily due to service rivalry and self-centered weapons laboratory stances that virtually stopped SRM progress (at least that leading to a fielded solution) after AIM/ACEVAL where two advanced seekers (one for each service solution) were actually flown. The urban legend has it the Soviet Union got the message and patterned AA-11 after the Navy design (AGILE). True or not, it did spark a crash program in the Soviet Union to respond to what they thought the US was developing. Quite ironic in the end. I’ve met a former Soviet pilot who was convinced we did develop something in the dark world that would blow AA-11. He was incredulous that service rivalry ended up producing nothing more than AIM-9M, only an incremental improvement over AIM-9L and certainly no competion for AA-11. Alas……