Missile FIM-92 Stinger

The Stinger originated as a General Dynamics program for an improved derivative of the FIM-43 Redeye. The U.S. Army accepted the program for development as Redeye II in 1971 and designated it FIM-92, with the Stinger name adopted in 1972. Technical problems delayed the first shoulder launch until mid-1975. Production began in 1978, and the missile entered service in 1981. It is manufactured by Raytheon and produced under license by Airbus Defence and Space in Germany and Roketsan in Turkey.

The Stinger is a passive infrared-homing surface-to-air missile fired by a single operator, though standard procedure assigns a team chief and a gunner. Unlike the Redeye, it can engage targets head-on. A small ejection motor pushes the missile clear of the operator before a two-stage solid-fuel sustainer ignites and accelerates it to supersonic speed. Guidance uses proportional navigation, then shifts the aim point from the exhaust plume to the target airframe. Before firing, the gunner inserts a Battery Coolant Unit, which cools the seeker with pressurized argon and powers target acquisition for about 45 seconds. The launcher carries an IFF interrogator. The high-explosive warhead uses HTA-3 explosive with an impact fuze and self-destructs 17 seconds after launch.

The FIM-92A has an IR-only seeker. The FIM-92B (POST) introduced a dual IR/UV rosette-scanning seeker that distinguishes flares from engine exhaust by their ultraviolet signatures. The FIM-92C (RMP) added a reprogrammable microprocessor, allowing software updates against new countermeasures. The D and G variants further improved countermeasure resistance. The FIM-92E Block I, delivered from 1995, improved performance against drones, cruise missiles, and light helicopters, and replaced most of the U.S. inventory. The FIM-92J life-extension upgrade adds a proximity-fuzed warhead with a target detection device for use against UAVs, along with a new flight motor. The FIM-92K receives targeting data through a vehicle datalink. The Block II, which would have used an imaging infrared seeker, and a passive radar-homing anti-radiation variant were both cancelled. Launch platforms include the AN/TWQ-1 Avenger, M6 Linebacker, Humvee racks, the MQ-1 Predator, and the AH-64 Apache, Tiger, and T129 helicopters, the helicopters firing the Air-to-Air Stinger (ATAS) variant. The Red Wasp program, flight-tested at Dugway Proving Ground in 2024, integrates integral rocket-ramjet propulsion into the Stinger airframe to extend its range. Obsolete components led the U.S. Army to launch a replacement program in 2020 and to redesign the seeker's dual detector assembly.

The Stinger first saw combat in the Falklands War. SAS troops shot down an Argentine Pucará on 21 May 1982 and a Puma helicopter near Mount Kent on 30 May. The CIA supplied Stingers to the Afghan Mujahideen, who downed their first Mi-24 near Jalalabad on 25 September 1986. Its effect on the Soviet–Afghan War remains disputed: Soviet forces responded with flares, exhaust baffles, night operations, and higher-altitude bombing. After 1989, a U.S. buyback recovered most of the missiles, but some reached Iran, Qatar, North Korea, Croatia, and Sri Lanka.

UNITA received Stingers in Angola between 1986 and 1989. In Chad, government forces shot down a Libyan Su-22MK on 8 October 1987 and a MiG-23MS during the subsequent recovery operation, and French troops downed a Hercules on 7 July 1988. Tajik opposition forces shot down a Russian Su-24M on 3 May 1993. A Su-24 was reportedly lost to a Stinger during the Second Chechen War. The LTTE destroyed a Sri Lankan Mi-24 on 10 November 1997. In Syria, Turkey reportedly supplied Stingers to the Free Syrian Army, and on 27 February 2020 footage showed apparent Turkish personnel firing a Turkish-built Stinger near Idlib.

From February 2022, the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Italy, Latvia, and Lithuania supplied Stingers to Ukraine; by May the U.S. had transferred about a quarter of its stockpile. Russia reportedly passed a Stinger to Iran in August 2022 for reverse engineering. The U.S. Navy has deployed Stinger teams aboard warships for point defense since 1984. The missile is widely exported, with operators including Germany, Turkey, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Pakistan, India, Israel, and Egypt. Non-state users have included UNITA and the Islamic State.