MiG-17 Landing with Unexploded Missile lodged in its Fuselage Caused Technology Transfer to Russia

Pioneering Studies in Infrared Airborne Air Missile Development

Air-to-air missiles were developed much later than air-to-ground ammunition. For many years, apart from the machine gun, aircraft had no other ammunition to fire at enemy aircraft. In some cases, the upper aircraft had to use the bomb normally used to hit a target on the ground to shoot down the enemy fighter aircraft caught below, with rare success. Nevertheless, compared to machine-gun fire at very close range, shooting down aircraft with bombs was always seen as an absurd operation.

During the Second World War, the search for a replacement for the 'aerial bombing' method of dropping bombs from the air on other aircraft gained momentum. Engineering studies that would be more effective than the machine gun, which is effective at short distances, and that would correspond to the need to develop air-to-air missiles that could hit enemy aircraft from relatively long distances were highly respected during the war. The Germans, in particular, carried out pioneering work in the development of air-to-air missiles at that time, as in jet engines. In this context, the basic method was the design of a heat-seeking infrared guidance system. Although the Germans, who experimented with numerous designs in this direction, were unable to develop a heat-seeking missile (and therefore could not reach the hot areas of the fighter aircraft in the air, especially the exhaust part) at the end of the war, they had reached very important engineering analyses. 

With the end of the war, American intelligence agencies tried to penetrate the German heat-seeking air-to-air missile development work. Their work, along with that of many engineers working on these projects, was confiscated. The information collected was transmitted to the aircraft companies of the Allied countries, while at the same time the reports containing the work of German engineers were appropriated, especially by the American aviation authorities. By the end of the 1940s, a wide variety of missile projects were underway, ranging from huge systems such as the Bell Bomi rocket-propelled bomber to small systems such as air-to-air missiles. German engineers working on the development of heat-seeking missiles were integrated into these missile projects. Thus, by the early 1950s, the US Air Force and the British Royal Air Force had made considerable progress in the development of missiles with infrared (IR) seeker heads.

On the American side, development of the heat-seeking Sidewinder missile began in 1946 at the Naval Ordnance Testing Station (NOTS), now the Naval Air Weapons Station, or China Lake, as it was popularly known, in Inyokern, California, as an in-house research project conceived by William B. McLean. Originally called "Local Tapa Project 602", the project was renamed Sidewinder in 1950. The name of the project was inspired by nature. The reference was Crotalus cerastes, a rattlesnake that uses infrared sensory organs to hunt warm-blooded prey.

The first live firing of the Sidewinder 1 missile took place on 3 September 1952. The missile intercepted an unmanned target aircraft for the first time on 11 September 1953. In 1954, trials continued at the US Air Force Holloman Air Development Centre with the original AIM-9A and the improved AIM-9B. The first operational use of the missile was carried out in mid-1956 by Grumman F9F-8 Cougar and FJ-3 Furies aircraft of the US Navy.

Approximately 100,000 of the first Sidewinder models (AIM-9B/C/D/E) were produced under the main subcontract of Raytheon and General Electric, while NATO versions were produced under licence by Bodenseewerk Gerätetechnik in Germany, totalling 9,200 units.

The missile was first used in 1958 in the airspace over the Taiwan Strait.

The Sidewinder missile was first used in combat on 24 September 1958, during the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis, by the then Republic of China (now Taiwan) Air Force against aircraft of the People's Republic of China. In those years, the ongoing tension between Taiwan and China led to occasional air battles. The Taiwan Air Force used American-made F-86 Sabres to patrol the Taiwan Strait to intercept Chinese fighter jets. China had MiG-17 fighter jets, which had better high-altitude performance than the F-86s. For this reason, it became almost impossible for the F-86s to exist against the MiG-17s with cannon fire.

In response, the United States decided, in great secrecy, to integrate sidewinder missiles on Taiwan's F-86s. An air munitions integration team provided by the US Marine Corps carried out the necessary missile modifications on the aircraft. Sidewinder missiles were used for the first time against MiG-17s on 24 September 1958. Knowing the low performance of the F-86s, MiG-17 pilots, as they always did, passed over the F-86s waiting over the Taiwan Strait. At this time, the first sidewinder missile was fired at the MiG-17 arm. MiG-17 pilots, who were suddenly faced with missile fire instead of machine gun fire, were naturally stunned and disrupted their arm formation. A swirling, spiralling dogfight began between the F-86s and MiG-17s. Taking advantage of this opportunity, F-86 pilots had the chance to fire missiles behind the MiG-17s that fell in front of them. As a result, the Chinese army unexpectedly started to lose MiG-17s with missile fire. 

The missile hit the MiG-17 but did not explode, the fuselage of the aircraft remained stuck.

In another engagement over the Taiwan Strait the same year, an AIM-9B missile fired by a Taiwanese fighter jet hit a Chinese Air Force MiG-17, but the missile did not explode. The missile remained lodged in the MiG's fuselage. Despite the unexploded missile hitting the fuselage, the MiG-17 was still able to fly. The pilot was instructed to bring the MiG-17 safely back to the base with the American air-to-air missile on board. 

The MiG-17 made a safe landing with the missile on board. The Sidewinder missile was carefully removed and Soviet specialists supporting Mao's army immediately took it back to the USSR. The unexploded, intact American-made Sidewinder missile was thus captured for examination by Soviet engineers. Soviet engineers carefully disassembled the AIM-9 and then reverse-engineered it piece by piece, learning all the details of the missile. In this way, the Soviets were able to produce a copy of the Sidewinder, a heat-seeking air-to-air missile. Today, this missile has been part of the Soviet armament inventory since 1960 as the Vympel K-13/R-3S missile with the Russian designation AA-2 Atoll in NATO abbreviations and codings. 

Conclusion

Particularly the first versions of the heat-seeking AIM 9 Sidewinder missiles warn the pilot with a noisy sound, similar to an increasing growl, that the heat-scanning head in the nose of the missile has detected the target as soon as it turns towards the heat source. It is as if the missile is talking to the pilot, saying 'I am taking the heat of the target'. This means let me go, let me enter the exhaust of the enemy aircraft. Once the heat-seeking warhead locks onto the infrared radiation emitted by the exhaust of the enemy aircraft, it is not possible for the prey to escape at close distances. Although many different guidance methods and techniques have now been developed, the AIM-9X missiles, which are improved versions of the AIM-9A/B Sidewinder missiles, the ancestor of air-to-air missiles, are still effectively used in close air combat.

Reference

Dario Leone, The Aviation Geek Club, Jul 24 2023, https://theaviationgeekclub.com/the-story-of-the-aim-9-sidewinder-that-failed-to-detonate-got-embedded-in-a-mig-17-and-was-reverse-engineered-into-the-soviet-aa-2-atoll/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIM-9_Sidewinder