An air-to-air rocket or air interception rocket is an unguided

projectile A projectile is an object that is propelled by the application of an external force and then moves freely under the influence of gravity and air resistance. Although any objects in motion through space are projectiles, they are commonly found in ...

fired from aircraft to engage other flying targets. They were used briefly in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

to engage enemy observation balloons and in and after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

to engage enemy bombers. Fighters were too maneuverable to be effectively engaged with rockets.

History

World War I

Rocket A rocket (from it, rocchetto, , bobbin/spool) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely fr ...

s were used in World War I to engage

observation balloon An observation balloon is a type of balloon that is employed as an aerial platform for intelligence gathering and artillery spotting. Use of observation balloons began during the French Revolutionary Wars, reaching their zenith during World War ...

s and

airship An airship or dirigible balloon is a type of aerostat or lighter-than-air aircraft that can navigate through the air under its own power. Aerostats gain their lift from a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding air. In early ...

s. Success rates were low and the rockets were dangerous to handle in the early fighters built from highly flammable materials. By the end of the war they were replaced by the incendiary

Pomeroy bullet The Pomeroy bullet was designed by New Zealander John Pomeroy (1873–1950) as an anti-zeppelin weapon. Pomeroy bullets were supposed to explode when encountering the minimal resistance of fabric envelopes containing hydrogen gas holding the zeppe ...

s. The Pomeroy bullet was developed to strike German

Zeppelin A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin () who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874Eckener 1938, pp ...

airships, by igniting the hydrogen in the balloon. They did not always work. One of the notable rockets from World War I was the

Le Prieur rocket ''Le Prieur'' rockets (French ''Fusées Le Prieur'') were a type of incendiary air-to-air rocket used in World War I against observation balloons and airships. They were invented by the French lieutenant Yves Le Prieur and were first used in the ...

which had a range of about , limited by inaccuracy. It was first used in the

Battle of Verdun The Battle of Verdun (french: Bataille de Verdun ; german: Schlacht um Verdun ) was fought from 21 February to 18 December 1916 on the Western Front in France. The battle was the longest of the First World War and took place on the hills north ...

Interwar period

The first known example of a successful attack of air-to-air rockets on another plane took place on August 20, 1939, during the

Battle of Khalkhin Gol The Battles of Khalkhin Gol (russian: Бои на Халхин-Голе; mn, Халхын голын байлдаан) were the decisive engagements of the undeclared Soviet–Japanese border conflicts involving the Soviet Union, Mongolia, Ja ...

. A group of Soviet

Polikarpov I-16 The Polikarpov I-16 (russian: Поликарпов И-16) is a Soviet single-engine single-seat fighter aircraft of revolutionary design; it was the world's first low-wing cantilever monoplane fighter with retractable landing gear to attain ope ...

fighters under command of Captain N. Zvonaryev successfully destroyed a few Japanese warplanes by launching of

RS-82 rocket RS-82 and RS-132 (Reaktivny Snaryad; Russian: Реактивный Снаряд; rocket-powered projectile) were unguided rockets used by Soviet military during World War II. Development Design work on RS-82 and RS-132 rockets began in the late 19 ...

s. Soviet RS-82 rockets were mounted on special pylons under wings of Soviet fighters.

World War II

Air-to-air rockets were utilized in World War II to engage

bomber A bomber is a military combat aircraft designed to attack ground and naval targets by dropping air-to-ground weaponry (such as bombs), launching aerial torpedo, torpedoes, or deploying air-launched cruise missiles. The first use of bombs dropped ...

s because cannon fire proved ineffective at high closing speeds. On top of that, getting in the range to fire one's guns also meant getting in the range of the bomber's tail gun. The German

R4M R4M, abbreviation for ''Rakete, 4 kilogramm, Minenkopf'' ( en, Rocket, 4 kilogram, Mine-head), also known by the nickname ''Orkan'' ( en, Hurricane) due to its distinctive smoke trail when fired, was a folding-fin air-to-air rocket used by the ...

was the first practical rocket. It was highly successful, but came too late to change the outcome of the war. After experiencing the effectiveness of the German rockets, both the Soviet Union and the United States started developing their own.{{Clarify, What about Soviet RS-82 which are earlier?, date=July 2011 The invention of effective

air-to-air missile The newest and the oldest member of Rafael's Python family of AAM for comparisons, Python-5 (displayed lower-front) and Shafrir-1 (upper-back) An air-to-air missile (AAM) is a missile fired from an aircraft for the purpose of destroying a ...

s spelled the end for their unguided counterparts in the 1950s. The capability of steering during the flight trajectory significantly increased the hit percentage over rockets. The United States built one last air-to-air rocket, the

AIR-2 Genie The Douglas AIR-2 Genie (previous designation MB-1) was an unguided air-to-air rocket with a 1.5 kt W25 nuclear warhead. It was deployed by the United States Air Force (USAF 1957–1985) and Canada (Royal Canadian Air Force 1965–68, Air Com ...

. It used a

nuclear warhead A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...

with a blast radius of 300m to compensate for its inaccuracy.

List of air-to-air rockets by country

France

SNEB The SNEB rocket (french: Societe Nouvelle des Etablissements Edgar Brandt) is an unguided air-to-ground rocket projectile manufactured by the French company ''TDA Armements'', designed for launch by combat aircraft and helicopters. It is also k ...

Germany

* R4M Orkan * RZ.65 *

Werfer-Granate 21 The ''Werfer-Granate 21'' rocket launcher, also known as the BR 21 (the "BR" standing for ''Bordrakete'') in official Luftwaffe manuals, was a weapon used by the German Luftwaffe during World War II and was the first on-board rocket placed into ...

Hungary

* 44M Lidérc

Japan

* Ro-3 * Ro-5 * Type 3 No.1 Mk 28 * Type 3 No.6 Mk 27

Sweden

* Srak m/55 * Srak m/57

USA

Dervish Dervish, Darvesh, or Darwīsh (from fa, درویش, ''Darvīsh'') in Islam can refer broadly to members of a Sufi fraternity A fraternity (from Latin language, Latin ''wiktionary:frater, frater'': "brother (Christian), brother"; whence, ...

* Gimlet * Mk 4 Fin-Folding Aerial Rocket * Zuni 5-inch Folding-Fin Aircraft Rocket

USSR

* AS-5 *

RS-82 RS-82 and RS-132 (Reaktivny Snaryad; Russian: Реактивный Снаряд; rocket-powered projectile) were unguided rockets used by Soviet military during World War II. Development Design work on RS-82 and RS-132 rockets began in the late 19 ...

* S-21