AIM-9J Sidewinder

Description

Write an introduction to the article in 2-3 small paragraphs. Briefly tell us about the history of the development and combat using the weaponry and also about its features. Compile a list of air, ground, or naval vehicles that feature this weapon system in the game.

Vehicles equipped with this weapon

• F-4E Phantom II
• F-4EJ Phantom II
• ␗F-104G

General info

Tell us about the tactical and technical characteristics of the missile.

Effective damage

Like most Sidewinders, the missile features a 4.5 kg warhead that makes it an effective air-to-air missile. In general, a direct hit will either destroy or critically damage an enemy aircraft. If a near miss is achieved, the damage will be sharply decreased.

Comparison with analogues

Give a comparative description of missiles that have firepower equal to this weapon.

Usage in battles

Overview

Aim-9J is a great tool for any situation where a gun cannot suffice or the pilot has no time to engage. When having used other infrared missiles, the Aim-9J takes virtually no time to get used to.

Deploying Aim-9J in combat

Aim-9J is best used when having to chase an enemy fighter that accelerates away from you, or is yet outside of effective gun range. Timing is key to sucess with using Aim-9J, since unlike any other type of armament, Aim-9J requires 5 seconds to warm up before readyness for launch, after wich the missile seeker will remain active for 10 seconds. So it is reccomended to plan a missile launch shortly ahead of warmup, such as picking out the target ahead in time and then positioning the engagement to your advantage. Aim-9J is most effective in distances from 0.75-3km at altitudes below 4km, or 1-4km above 4km of altitude respectively. Furthermore, it is reccomended to only fire Aim-9J against the targets rear, prefferably with an active afterburner to ensure continous tracking towards Aim-9Js upcoming flight. However, when attempting to engage a target moving on a tangent to the launch aircraft, it is reccomended to lead the missile slightly towards the target, to ensure the track is sustained throughout the flight. In most cases though, the exccellent seeker of Aim-9J will stay on target, even when flares or other countermeasures are deployed. The only threat to Aim-9J worth mentioning are heavily turning targets, due to its limited max. G-load of 20G, therefore making it not an impossible task to dodge Aim-9J.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• TNT load sufficient to kill any aircraft it hits when compared to opposing aircrafts missiles such as R-60
• Accurate seeker hard to distract with flares
• Radar can assist the missile to pick the right target before launch

Cons:

• Does not follow hard turning targets well unlike R-60 or R550
• Seeker remains warmed up for only 10 seconds

History

Examine the history of the creation and combat usage of the weapon in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the weapon and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Weapon-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref></ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <references />.

Media

Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.

See also

Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:

• reference to the article about the variant of the weapon;
• references to approximate analogues by other nations and research trees.

External links

Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:

• topic on the official game forum;
• encyclopedia page on the weapon;
• other literature.