"phil hunt" wrote in message
. ..
On Tue, 16 Sep 2003 07:43:03 GMT, Tom Cooper wrote:

No problem either, and regardles the range. The second kill scored by
AIM-54
ever was against an Iraqi MiG-21RF, escorted by two MiG-23MS. The Phoenix
blew the 21 after travelling over 60kms

Was this using active radar homing, or semi-active?

The AIM-54A is an ARH in the terminal flight phase, so it was always the ARH
(this capability was also the "ace up the sleeve", as there was actually no
advance warning about the attack for the target in almost 90% of the cases).

On the other side, when fired against a target over a shorter range (and
this was also the case several times) it will go active as soon as launched.
So for a number of kills the AIM-54 acted like a kind of an oversized
AIM-120.


Tom Cooper
Co-Author:
Iran-Iraq War in the Air, 1980-1988:
http://www.acig.org/pg1/content.php
and,
Iranian F-4 Phantom II Units in Combat:
http://www.osprey-publishing.co.uk/t...hp/title=S6585