US Modifies Shoulder Fired Stinger Missiles To Destroy Drones - Raytheon

The United States is retrofitting its stockpile of shoulder-fired Stinger ground-to-air missiles with proximity fuses, which will allow the missiles to destroy drones and other small targets that could otherwise escape a direct hit, the manufacturer Raytheon said in a press release on Tuesday

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th June, 2019) The United States is retrofitting its stockpile of shoulder-fired Stinger ground-to-air missiles with proximity fuses, which will allow the missiles to destroy drones and other small targets that could otherwise escape a direct hit, the manufacturer Raytheon said in a press release on Tuesday.

"The enhancement enables the lightweight, self-contained Stinger air defense system to destroy a wider array of battlefield threats by detonating its warhead near the target, while maintaining the missile's proven hit-to-kill capability," the release said.

Raytheon explained in the release that the US Army has completed qualification testing on the new proximity fuse and will begin delivering the enhanced Stinger missile to soldiers later this year.

The Stinger, originally developed to shoot down helicopters and fixed wing aircraft, has been deployed by all four US military services in conflicts dating back to the mid-1980s, destroying more than 270 aircraft, according to the release.