How the Soviets were able to copy the American AIM-9 Sidewinder Airborne Missile through reverse engineering and espionage during the Cold War?

In the cover photo, Physicist Dr William B. McLean shows the guidance unit of the infrared-guided missile invented by the AIM-9 Sidewinder missile. (Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)

The Sidewinder is a supersonic, infrared-guided, air-to-air missile for use by fighter aircraft.

The missile was originally developed for fleet defence for the US Navy, but was later adapted for wider use by the US Air Force. The AIM-9 is an infrared-guided air-to-air missile. The first successful Sidewinder engagement took place on 24 September 1958 in the Taiwan Strait. With its low cost and reliable history, it has become the most favoured missile, especially by the air forces of western countries. The code word is "FOX-2", which stands for launching an infrared guided missile. Sidewinder is estimated to have shot down 270 aircraft. An example of the current unit cost of a Sidewinder is $603,817 for an AIM-9X Block II (2015).

This missile has a very interesting history. They say that lightning does not strike the same place 2 times in a row. But this saying did not apply to the AIM-9 Sidewinder.

AIM-9 Sidewinder's first encounter with reverse engineering

The first successful Sidewinder engagement took place on 24 September 1958. In the summer of 1958, rising tensions between China and Taiwan over the Taiwan Strait provided the first opportunity to test the Sidewinder in combat. A Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 of the Chinese People's Liberation Army was shot down by an AIM-9 Sidewinder fired from a North American F-86 Sabre fighter jet of the Taiwan Air Force.

In general, the appearance of the Sidewinder came as a surprise to the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union, which supported it. Soon, however, the communists had an unexpected chance. During the dogfight in the Taiwan Strait, the AIM-9 Sidewinder fired from the F-86 Sabre of the Taiwan Air Force did not explode when it should have exploded at a certain distance from the MiG-17, and interestingly, it did not explode after hitting the MiG-17. It got stuck in the fuselage of the MiG-17. The MiG-17 returned to the base without any problems with the AIM-9 Sidewinder missile stuck in its fuselage.

Ground crews carefully removed the AIM-9 Sidewinder missile from the fuselage of the MiG-17. The dismantled missile was examined and then quickly sent to the Soviet Union for further examination. On arrival in the USSR, the captured AIM-9 Sidewinder was shown to the government design team led by Ivan Toropov. In the words of one of the Russian engineers, it represented for them the university of missile design. Impressed by the simplicity and effectiveness of this deadly US-made weapon, the Soviets decided to reverse engineer it and start their own production in 1960. Counterparts of the reverse-engineered Vympel K-13 (R-3S) (AA-2 Atoll) appeared in the Soviet Union and the AIM-9 Sidewinder, designated PL-2 under licence in the People's Republic of China. Both missiles, like the first generation Sidewinders, had serious shortcomings in terms of capabilities, but were similarly used as a springboard to much more practical designs.

The Funny Story of the AIM-9 Sidewinder's Introduction to Military Espionage

In less than 10 years, the R-3S was in service with about 20 air forces around the world. However, air battles in the Middle East and Southeast Asia proved that the weapon was rapidly becoming obsolete. Therefore, the Soviets were very pleased that the next version of the AIM-9 was sent to Moscow, this time by mail and directly to Moscow. This is not a joke, but a fact.

On the evening of 22 October 1967, Manfred Ramminger, a KGB agent in West Germany, took advantage of dense fog and careless security to enter the Neuburg airbase with his colleagues. Their Polish driver Josef Linowski was also a good locksmith. German F-104 Starfighter pilot Wolf-Diethard Knoppe. The team stole a working AIM-9 from the West German ammunition depot at the airbase and carried it all the way across the runway in a wheelbarrow to a Mercedes sedan class car parked outside the base.

When the team arrived at the car, they found that the 2.9 metre long missile was too big to fit in the boot of the car. A practical solution was immediately found. Ramminger broke the rear window of the car and covered the protruding part with a sheet. He then marked the protrusion with a piece of red cloth, as required by law, to avoid attracting the attention of the police and causing an accident.

Ramminger reached his home in Krefeld without any problems and then patiently disassembled the AIM-9 Sidewinder at home. He kept the missile's fuse for himself and personally handed it over to his contact in the KGB.

Finally, he put all the parts in a box and took them to the nearest post office, from where they were sent directly to Moscow by airmail. To avoid any problems with German or Soviet customs, Ramminger declared the contents of the parcel to be "low-grade exports".

Due to the weight of the parcel, postage was $79.25.

Air freight services made as many mistakes with cargo then as they do today, and so Ramminger's parcel travelled from Frankfurt via Paris to Copenhagen, then to Düsseldorf and finally to Moscow, arriving 10 days late.

Ramminger and his colleagues were all arrested in late 1968.

What kind of punishment did Ramminger and his colleagues receive for espionage?

DUSSELDORF, West Germany, Oct. 9, 1970 (UPI) - A West German court today found three men guilty of stealing an American Sidewinder missile from an air base in 1967, shipping it to Moscow as normal air cargo for £483.88 and receiving $81,000 from the Soviet Union.

Manfred Ramminger, the architect who organised the theft, was sentenced to four years in prison. One of his accomplices, Josef Linowski, a locksmith, was sentenced to four years in prison; another, Wolf-Diethard Knoppe, a former officer of the West German Air Force, was sentenced to three years and three months.

Chief judge Fritz Weber said that although the three were found guilty of treason, espionage and grand theft, they had not betrayed state secrets when they handed over the missiles and navigation devices to the Soviet Union.

Another factor mitigating the sentence, he said, was that the equipment was not guarded closely enough by the West German Army, given its value. The prosecutor had asked for five to five and a half years in prison.

While this was happening on the West German front, the Soviets were already copying the new generation Sidewinder.

A few years later they launched a new model, the R-13M. It had much improved performance, including limited front view capability.

Bibliography

https://warisboring.com/the-kgb-shipped-a-sidewinder-missile-by-mail-to-moscow/

https://www.nytimes.com/1970/10/10/archives/3-germans-guilty-of-missile-theft.html

https://plane-encyclopedia.com/cold-war/aim-9-sidewinder-missile-series/