AIM-9 Sidewinder "SWIFT" modification?

[Flame2512]

I was reading David Gledhill's book Tornado F3 In Focus: A Navigator’s Eye On Britain’s Last Interceptor. In it he says this:

If a target launched infra-red countermeasures, known as flares, against the attacking Tornado F3, the missile could be defeated. It was some years later before infra-red counter-countermeasures were incorporated into the AIM-9L in the form of the SWIFT and the AIM-9Li modifications.

I know that the AIM-9Li was an improved version of the AIM-9L, developed by Bodenseewerk Gerätetechnik in Germany, that included IRCCM capability. However the SWIFT modification he mentions has me a bit stumped. I've had a look through various books, and around the internet, and the only other mention I can find of the SWIFT modification is in this 16 year old forum thread: https://www.pprune.org/military-aviation/167754-aim-9ls-uk-service-1982-a.html

The people in that thread seem to agree that it was a (seemingly British) programme to make the Sidewinder resistant to flares, which lines up with what Gledhill says. However they don't seem to agree on whether it was applied to the AIM-9G, AIM-9L, or both. They also all seem to imply that it was (or maybe is?) quite heavily classified.

Has anyone heard of the "SWIFT" modification before, or know anything about?

 

[Voltzz]

I was reading David Gledhill's book Tornado F3 In Focus: A Navigator’s Eye On Britain’s Last Interceptor. In it he says this:

If a target launched infra-red countermeasures, known as flares, against the attacking Tornado F3, the missile could be defeated. It was some years later before infra-red counter-countermeasures were incorporated into the AIM-9L in the form of the SWIFT and the AIM-9Li modifications.

I know that the AIM-9Li was an improved version of the AIM-9L, developed by Bodenseewerk Gerätetechnik in Germany, that included IRCCM capability. However the SWIFT modification he mentions has me a bit stumped. I've had a look through various books, and around the internet, and the only other mention I can find of the SWIFT modification is in this 16 year old forum thread: https://www.pprune.org/military-aviation/167754-aim-9ls-uk-service-1982-a.html

The people in that thread seem to agree that it was a (seemingly British) programme to make the Sidewinder resistant to flares, which lines up with what Gledhill says. However they don't seem to agree on whether it was applied to the AIM-9G, AIM-9L, or both. They also all seem to imply that it was (or maybe is?) quite heavily classified.

Has anyone heard of the "SWIFT" modification before, or know anything about?

According to 'BGT - Die Geschichte eines Hochtechnologie-Unternehmens' which ofc focuses on BGT and the AIM-9L/I, SWIFT was the unsuccessful British proposal to the European Sidewinder-Consortium for improving the AIM-9L performance against flares, by incoperating a flare detection and suppression circuit in-place of a component of the cooling system. According to the book this was a more or less jerry-rigged solution becuause of the Falklands and apparently was even used in that conflict.

 

[Flame2512]

Thank you, I've spent the last year casually looking for AIM-9 SWIFT information and never managed to find anything else beyond what was in my original post.

 

[Flame2512]

I've been doing more research over the last year and have found references to the AIM-9L SWIFT in a few RAF documents, including one training manual which confirmed what the name means (unfortunately the section about it was redacted):

Sidewinder Improvement against Flare Threat (SWIFT)

So it seems that it was used to some extent by the RAF. Unfortunately I've still not found any information about how the SWIFT came to be or what its capabilities were.

 

[Scott Kenny]

I've been doing more research over the last year and have found references to the AIM-9L SWIFT in a few RAF documents, including one training manual which confirmed what the name means (unfortunately the section about it was redacted):

Sidewinder Improvement against Flare Threat (SWIFT)

So it seems that it was used to some extent by the RAF. Unfortunately I've still not found any information about how the SWIFT came to be or what its capabilities were.

Something I remember from Armada Magazine ads from the late 1990s was that the typical flare didn't match the total frequencies output by the aircraft. IIRC there's a big IR signature, plus another spike in the near UV range. If your missile can also detect UV, that's how you discard a false target. Ironically, this ad was for higher end flares that had this UV spike.

 

[NMaude]

Any idea as to how the flare detection and suppression circuitry worked? Given how long ago it was it was almost certainly analogue and used Op-Amp ICs.

 

[Scott Kenny]

Any idea as to how the flare detection and suppression circuitry worked? Given how long ago it was it was almost certainly analogue and used Op-Amp ICs.

Not on my end.

 

[alibongo]

SWIFT wasn't installed until '85 in the FI, which afaik was the first and nobody who mattered, literally nobody, knew they were being delivered. The module filled up 9L argon bottle cavity which wasn't used in the RAF, it was delivered as part of the G&C as a whole unit.

Scott's right in that it sampled the heat source and anything spiking was ignored. The PPRune thread is mainly rumour and gossip, some good stuff. The RAF 'had' 9Ls in 82 but everything we had was dedicated to SACEUR, NATO stock. The US supplied us directly from their own stocks. As the referenced thread says, most shots were rear aspect and 9G could have handled them but the biggest win IMO was that they'd had minimal handling being new. Bad handling such as lifting by the wings could damage the rocket motor