The Mitsubishi AAM-1 was a Japanese
infrared homing
Infrared homing is a passive weapon guidance system which uses the infrared (IR) light emission from a target to track and follow it seamlessly. Missiles which use infrared seeking are often referred to as "heat-seekers" since infrared is radi ...
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 ...
developed from the
AIM-9B Sidewinder missile.
Operational history
Starting in 1969, the AAM-1 was produced by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, with around 400 produced in total. It served as the standard armament for
Japan Air Self-Defense Force F-104J while used on
North American F-86F and
Mitsubishi F-1
The Mitsubishi F-1 is a Japanese swept-wing, single-seat, twin-engine supersonic strike aircraft that was in service with the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) from 1978 to 2006. It was Japan's first domestically designed and built supersoni ...
. Being slightly shorter and lighter compared to the
AIM-9E Sidewinder, the AAM-1 had inferior performances compared to the American missile which was entering service in Japan. The unit cost of an AIM-9B purchased through
Foreign Military Sales
The United States Department of Defense's Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program facilitates sales of U.S. arms, defense equipment, defense services, and military training to foreign governments. The purchaser does not deal directly with the defens ...
was about 1 million yen, while that of AAM-1 was about 3.5 million yen in 1968 and about 4.19 million yen in 1969. Due to higher cost and inferior characteristics, the procurement of the AAM-1 was halted in 1972 with the last examples withdrawn for service in 1986.
[https://www.forecastinternational.com/samples/F659_CompleteSample.pdf ]
Operators
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Japan Air Self-Defense Force
See also
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AAM-2
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AAM-3
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AAM-4
The Mitsubishi AAM-4 (Type 99 air-to-air missile, ) is a medium-range active radar homing air-to-air missile. It is a modern beyond-visual-range missile developed in Japan and intended to replace the semi-active radar homing AIM-7 Sparrow missile ...
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AAM-5
The Mitsubishi AAM-5 (Type 04 air-to-air missile, ) is a short-range air-to-air missile developed and produced by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for the Japan Air Self-Defense Force. Development of the missile as a replacement for the AAM-3 (Type ...
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AIM-9 Sidewinder
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K-13 (missile)
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R-60 (missile)
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R.550 Magic
The R.550 Magic (backronym for ''Missile Auto-Guidé Interception et Combat'') is a short-range air-to-air missile designed in 1968 by French company Matra to compete with the American AIM-9 Sidewinder, and it was made backwards compatible with t ...
*
Shafrir-1
References
Air-to-air missiles of Japan
Military equipment introduced in the 1960s
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