FIM-92 Stinger

The FIM-92 Stinger is a combat-proven shoulder-fired infrared-homing air-defense missile that has evolved from a Cold War MANPADS into a modern counter-drone weapon, now being refurbished, rebuilt and replaced through a multi-track programme to keep it operational into the 2030s.

Overview

The FIM-92 Stinger is the most widely fielded Western man-portable air-defense system (MANPADS). A single soldier or a two-man team can engage helicopters, low-flying fixed-wing aircraft, unmanned aerial systems and cruise missiles with a fully passive missile that gives no warning of its approach. Over four decades it has been fired from the shoulder, from pedestal mounts on vehicles such as the Avenger and IM-SHORAD, and from helicopters and drones in the air-to-air role. The war in Ukraine turned the Stinger into an emblem of donated Western air defense, with more than 2,000 rounds rushed to Kyiv in early 2022, while a production line that had been cold for nearly twenty years was frantically re-established.

Development

General Dynamics began design work on the Stinger in 1967 as an all-aspect replacement for the tail-chase FIM-43 Redeye. After a troubled test phase, the first production missiles were delivered in 1978 and the system entered U.S. service in 1981. Its first confirmed combat kill came on 21 May 1982, when a British SAS trooper shot down an Argentine Pucará during the Falklands war, Wikipedia notes. Seeker improvements proceeded through the 1980s (POST and RMP variants) and a Block I upgrade with enhanced low-signature performance re-equipped nearly the whole U.S. stock from the mid-1990s. An imaging-seeker Block II was cancelled in the early 2000s.

After that the line went quiet for roughly two decades. When Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 drained Western stockpiles, Raytheon (now RTX) found that many of the specialised parts were no longer manufactured and that the workforce skill base had retired. The company had to bring back retirees in their 70s to teach manual assembly, Defense One reported. In May 2022 the U.S. Army awarded RTX a $624 million contract for 1,300 replacement missiles, plus engineering, test equipment and obsolescence redesign, The Defense Post detailed. A follow-on $579 million order in September 2025 extends new-build production to 2031, with Diehl Defence providing European component sourcing, The Defense Post recorded. Meanwhile, the DEVCOM AvMC Red Wasp programme flight-tested a solid-fuel-ramjet Stinger in May 2024 to dramatically increase range against stand-off ISR drones.

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