Comments by "Titanium Rain" (@ChucksSEADnDEAD) on "SNAKES ON A PLANE: The AIM-9B Sidewinder In Development And In Action" video.

First, the missile slows down as soon as the motor stops burning. The faster you go, the more drag. The nosecone of the Sidewinder had to resist supersonic drag heating on the outside and cryogenic cooling on the inside. Not exactly flimsy. Second, relative speed/closure rate. The aircraft is running away from the missile as the missile progressively gets slower. If you are in an open train car at 900 ft/s and someone shoots a 9mm bullet travelling at 1100 ft/s at you, the bullet hits you at 200 ft/s. Enough to break the skin but hardly fatal. Third, aircraft are even more flimsy than missiles! A round tube is a very solid shape all things considered. An aircraft is like a car, you can completely dent the body panels at parking speeds. Well, cars don't have to fly, so aircraft have to save even more weight. To the point hitting a bird can mangle a wing's skin and expose the spars underneath. A missile gliding on inertia and losing speed, an aircraft running away, and a tube acting like a spear versus a coke can of an aircraft... easy to believe.
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Two million people died for China and the Soviets only for Vietnam to them grow closer to the US. Seems like the "good guys" sent people into a mass ritualistic sacrifice to appease the Marxist Blood God then gave up.
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The Phoenix has a good track record in Iran. There's no countermeasures from long range when Iraqi aviation is grounded from the suspicion that traitors or covert saboteurs are sticking timed explosives inside aircraft because nobody can see the F-14 Tomcat or the AIM-54 diving on its prey. Just one of the fighters in formation turning into a fireball with no warning.
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@Ksozey We have a proven instance of it happening on a missile dud, and an allegation. Why would Sweden have production blueprints?
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When aerial gunnery is harder than firing a missile within parameters kind of devalues your point. Putting a gun on a fighter does nothing when pilots aren't sufficiently trained to use it.
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@shannonkohl68 However, Phantom pilots were sufficiently trained to score over a hundred missile kills in Vietnam. There were like 6 gunpod kills and 5 kills with the E variant nose gun. Or the other way around. Missiles won.
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