AIM-95 Agile

The AIM-95 Agile was an air-to-air missile developed by the United States of America. It was developed by the US Navy to equip the F-14 Tomcat, replacing the AIM-9 Sidewinder. Around the same time, the US Air Force was designing the AIM-82 to equip their F-15 Eagle, and later dropped their efforts to join the Agile program. In the end, newer versions of Sidewinder would close the performance gap so much that the Agile program was cancelled.

Overview

The AIM-95 was developed at the China Lake Naval Weapons Center as an advanced replacement for the AIM-9 Sidewinder short range air-to-air missile. The Agile was equipped with an infrared seeker for fire and forget operation. The seeker head had a high off-boresight lock-on capability capable of being targeted by a Helmet Mounted Sight (HMS), allowing it to be fired at targets which were not directly ahead—thus making it far easier to achieve a firing position. The solid-propellant rocket used thrust vectoring for control giving it superior turning capability over the Sidewinder.