Russian researchers hope to achieve a major breakthrough soon in the development of a long-range, ramjet-powered, air-to-air missile, but engineers at the renowned Vympel State Machine-building design bureau are still wrestling with design issues that are slowing progress. While many of Russia's fighter programs have trailed U.S. developments, allowing them to focus on exploiting perceived weaknesses in American products, that hasn't been the case in the air-to-air missile arena. Russia has long been able to field advanced systems that often are far ahead of the U.S. Most notably, development of the R-73 (AA-11 Archer) shortange, infrared guided air-to-air system forced the U.S. into upgrading its counterpart, the Sidewinder, under the AIM-9X program.
展开▼
