Originally Posted by iamlucky13
From what I've heard, if you could get a lock on anything with a Redeye, much less actually hit it, you were considered pretty gifted. Same for the SA-7. I understand the Stinger was almost as much of a marvel to Redeye gunners as the Javellin is to Dragon operators. Would you say that's fair?
I only worked briefly with an early training version of the Dragon so can't comment on either it, or its replacement--or the Stinger, for that matter. The Stinger was just a rumour at the time of my discharge.
The Redeye did seem fairly crude, and this is all based on memory. In order to make ready to fire, a sight system first had to be mounted to the disposable launcher/missile. There was a (cylindrical) disposeable battery-coolant unit inserted into the bottom, that among other things sent coolant to the IR tracking head which generated a lot of heat while stationary. The battery-coolant unit had a life of something like 2 to 3 minutes and the IR head took what seemed like 15 sec. to spin up. About three battery-coolant units were issued per missile. Once the decision was made to fire, the battery-coolant unit was engaged, and the clock was ticking.
The sight system had seperate reticles for fast and slow aircraft, moving left, right, away, and towards. Additionally, there were "super elevation" reticles. After determining the type of aircraft and its direction, engaging the battery-coolant unit, placing the correct reticle upon the target and tracking it till the IR sensor emitted tone, you still couldn't fire, you had to "superelevate" by shifting to a lower reticle that pointed the missile higher. For safety, the missiles engine did not fire till a certain distance from the launcher. Upon firing, the missile was first blasted from the launcher, and in the second or so before the missile kicked in it obviously looses some elevation. Super elevation was the correction factor. If the battery-coolant unit ran out before firing, you had to start all over.
It's also interesting to me that the Chaparral, Vulcan, and HAWK have all been retired and the Sergeant York was cancelled, leaving nothing between the Stinger and the Patriot, which is a theatre system. Well except the Avenger, but that launches Stingers.
I was discharged in the early 70's, and at that point stopped following military technology--it wasn't my business anymore. I'll take a guess. What you describe must be related to the demise of the risk of Soviet invasion--the main scenario where western air superiority was called into question.
Originally Posted by randya
Amazing how people can waste their time learning all the details about stuff that has no other purpose than killing people.
I'm not sure if your comment was directed at me, but I wasted my time while being paid by the taxpayers.