AIM-9X Sidewinder

choi

(1)
(a) AIM-9X Sidewinder. Raytheon, undated
http://www.raytheon.com/capabilities/products/aim-9x/
("compatible with the US Army's ground-based multi-mission launcher * * * The AIM-9X Block II * * * includ[es] lock-on-after-launch capability using a new weapon datalink to support Beyond Visual Range engagements")
(b) Jen Judson, US Army's Multi-Mission Launcher Defeats Cruise Missile, UAS Threat. dEFENSE nEWS, aPR 7, 2016.
http://www.defensenews.com/story ... as-threat/82765932/

(2) AIM-9 Sidewinder
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIM-9_Sidewinder
(section 3.2.4 AIM-9X: "entered service in November 2003 with the USAF (lead platform is the F-15C; the USN lead platform is the F/A-18C) * * * In February 2015, the U.S. Army successfully launched an AIM-9X Block II Sidewinder from the new Multi-Mission Launcher (MML), a truck-mounted missile launch container that can hold 15 of the missiles")

Quote: "The Block II adds Lock-on After Launch capability with a datalink, so the missile can be launched first and then directed to its target afterwards by an aircraft with the proper equipment for 360 degree engagements, such as the F-35 and F-22.

(3)
(a) lock-on after launch
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lock-on_after_launch
(LOAL; The older method of launch has retroactively become known as lock-on before launch, or LOBL, although this term is not commonly used and is a backronym to distinguish it from LOAL method)
(b) Still, what is LOAL exactly?  The following explains in detail.

Air-to-Air Missile Reaches Production Milestone. US Navy, Aug 31, 2015
http://www.navair.navy.mil/index ... wsStory&id=6046
("The most significant change incorporated into the Blk II series is the 'lock on after launch' capability. Rather than requiring the warfighter to actually see the target to lock the missile on, the warfighter can launch at the target without knowing its exact position.  Once the missile is launched from the aircraft, the seeker - a sensor inside the missile - locates the target either via infrared emissions or via datalink and proceeds to execute its mission")
(c) The "Storm" newspaper does not say which block of AIM-9X Taiwan acquires. However, what the Storm report describes is lock-on BEFORE launch, for Block I.

(4) Even the fifth-generation fighter needs LOAL missiles.

Raptor's New Claws: The F-22 Stealth Fighter Is More Lethal than Ever.
http://nationalinterest.org/blog ... e-lethal-ever-15434
("The lack of a HOBS missile put the $140 million stealth fighter at a severe disadvantage in a visual range dogfight with other aircraft. * * * Raptor pilots will be able take advantage of many of the superior capabilities of the AIM-9X even without a helmet-mounted cueing system ['which was deleted during the jet’s problematic development program in the late 1990s']. But to fully exploit the outer edges of the new Sidewinder’s greatly expanded weapons employment zone, F-22 pilots will eventually need one")