The US relies on these Sidewinder missiles to take down flying objects such as the alleged Chinese surveillance balloon.
. The US does not disclose the exact number of such missiles in its arsenal, but it’s likely to be significant with the US Air Force receiving its 100,000th such missile in 2021.The US Department of Defence is seeking to procure 255 of the missiles for $US111.9 million in financial 2023. That comes out to a cost of $US439,000 each.
But there are significant discounts involved and other countries will usually need to pay for associated equipment, parts and training costs as well. Malaysia sought to procure just 20 for an estimated AIM-9X-2 missiles for $US52 million in 2011, for example, after including such secondary costs.The AIM-9X Sidewinder is a heat-seeking, supersonic, short-range missile.
Early variants could only be used at very close range and could not be deployed at night. But subsequent improvements made it an ideal weapon for a variety of situations, and a later version of the missile was used during the Vietnam War. The 9X is the latest iteration of the Sidewinder and began to be deployed in 2003. Still, defence officials acknowledge their use against unidentified flying objects such as balloons is novel.
The military concluded that its smaller warhead and its shorter range allowed the AIM-9X to be deployed more safely and effectively compared to other missiles like the AIM-120, General Glen VanHerck, the commander of North American Aerospace Defence Command and US Northern Command, told reporters on February 6.
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