(Soviet Mi-24 helicopter shot down during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan)
Man-portable air defense missiles (MANPADS) are a miniature anti-aircraft missile born in the 60s of the last century, and their original prototype can be traced back to the so-called "Fuehrer Black Technology". During World War II, Germany once developed a single air defense rocket called "Bayonet", whose design ideas and structure are very similar to today's individual air defense missiles, except that "Bayonet" is a rocket, not a missile, and does not have the ability to automatically track targets.
(U.S. "Stinger" man-portable air defense missile)
The first large-scale use of man-portable air defense missiles was during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, when the United States provided hundreds of sets of "Stinger" FIM-92 man-portable air defense missiles to the Afghan guerrillas, and it is said that the Afghan guerrillas fired more than 340 "Stingers" throughout the war, shooting down and injuring 269 Soviet aircraft, with a damage rate of more than 70%, which can be said to be the peak record of man-portable air defense missiles. But what is interesting is that the armies of the major powers in the world today do not have large-scale installation of individual anti-aircraft missiles, but are generally equipped with self-propelled anti-aircraft guns and vehicle-mounted field anti-aircraft missiles. In fact, the core is the lack of performance of the individual air defense missiles themselves.
(U.S. soldiers operate Stinger missiles)
First of all, the biggest feature of man-portable air defense missiles is light and flexible, taking the FIM-92 "Stinger" missile as an example, the Stinger missile launcher is 183 mm long, the missile diameter is 70 mm, the missile range is 300 to 5000 meters, the maximum firing height is 3000 meters, and the maximum speed is 600 m / s (about 1.76 times the speed of sound). The total weight of the stinger missile complete system is 15.65 kg, the missile weighs 10.13 kg, and the missile warhead weighs 1 kg. The range here is 5,000 meters, the height of 3,000 meters is the most ideal state, the target as long as a little maneuvering, or fire infrared jamming bombs, the individual anti-aircraft missile will immediately lose the target.
(Although the man-portable air defense missile is called "single soldier", it usually requires a two-person group to operate and use))
And specific to the operational level, the reaction of the man-portable missile is by no means like in the movie, it can be picked up and hit. The launch of modern man-portable air defense missiles requires a process, when the Stinger missile is unboxed, before launch, it is necessary to charge the missile's guiding device with the battery that comes with the missile, the charging time is about 15 minutes, and after the charging is completed, it is also necessary to manually search and lock the target, after manually locking the target for about 1.7 seconds, the missile will automatically lock the target, and then the missile can be launched. Because the Stinger missile is very small in size, the combustion time of the solid rocket engine used is also particularly short, so the speed of the missile decays quickly, and the general attack helicopter is more reliable, if it hits a jet fighter, it is difficult to hit the target.
(The Mi-24 helicopter gunship was one of the most used helicopters by the Soviets in Afghanistan and the most damaged helicopter))
Second, since MANPADS were widely used in both the Vietnam War and the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan, the defense measures of various countries against MANPADS have also increased significantly. For jet fighters, dodging man-portable air defense missiles is relatively simple, usually relying on flight altitude, the general flight altitude is maintained at more than 3000 meters, it exceeds the strike altitude of man-portable air defense missiles; if it is necessary to fly at an ultra-low altitude, it will increase the flight speed of the aircraft, flying at a low altitude in supersonic mode, because the portable air defense missiles need to be manually searched for targets and aimed, as long as the aircraft stays in the field of view of the ground missile operator for a short enough time, the portable missile will not be able to aim and fire, And even if it fires, due to the short range of the man-portable missile, the aircraft can effectively dodge if it is fast enough. And because of the small size of the man-portable air defense missile, the sensitivity of the guidance device of the warhead is limited, and once the fighter suddenly makes a high maneuvering action, it is easy to directly shake off.
(Modern helicopter gunships carry rockets and missiles with ranges that greatly exceed man-portable air defence missiles))
For helicopters, especially helicopter gunships, there are two main ways to evade man-portable air defense missiles: First, increase the number of infrared jamming bombs, and once a man-portable air defense missile is found to fly over, it will immediately launch a large number of infrared jamming bombs, drowning the signal of the aircraft itself, and detonating the incoming missiles in advance; second, it is to equip the helicopter with air-to-ground weapons with a longer range, so as to completely avoid man-portable aircraft missiles. For example, the US military's AH-64 "Apache" helicopter gunship is equipped with a range of up to 6,000 meters of "Hydra" rockets, and a range of 8,000 meters of AGM-114 "Hellfire" anti-tank missiles, so that the helicopter gunship can hide outside the range of the ground man-portable air defense missile, cover the ground target, or strike precisely.
(Vehicle-mounted field anti-aircraft missile systems such as the Hongqi-7 are still the preferred anti-aircraft weapons for armies.)
At present, the field forces of various countries are generally equipped with small-caliber self-propelled anti-aircraft guns and vehicle-mounted anti-aircraft missiles. For example, the Hongqi-7 air defense missile equipped by the Continental Army has an effective range of 15 kilometers, more than 3 times that of a man-portable aircraft missile, and the Hongqi-7 missile adopts composite guidance and has a stronger anti-jamming capability, and the Hongqi-7 missile also has a terminal anti-missile capability, which can effectively intercept incoming cruise missiles, which is an ability that man-portable missiles can hardly achieve. Moreover, the large-scale allocation of man-portable air defense missiles to the troops not only fails to achieve the combat effectiveness of professional vehicle-mounted air defense missiles, but also occupies the equipment establishment of the troops, so at present, most countries are listed with vehicle-mounted air defense missiles, and do not regard individual man-portable air defense missiles as standard equipment.
However, for the current Ukraine, due to the "key care" of the Russian Air Force, individual air defense missiles have almost become the only means of countermeasures. NATO provided Ukraine with a large number of "Stinger" missiles before the war, and now NATO countries have to provide additional support, can Ukraine become the second Afghanistan? We'll see.