AIM-9 Sidewinder 1970. These were followed from the mid-seventies by the AIM-9L/P which was a substantial improvement on the early versions, particularly with an improved SR-116 reduced-smoke rocket motor. The third generation of the missile (AIM-9L/M) are all-aspect missile which share little in common with the earlier missiles. The name "Sidewinder" was selected in 1950 and is the common name of "Crotalus cerastes", a venomous rattlesnake, which uses infrared sensory organs to hunt warm-blooded prey. Originally called the Sidewinder 1, the first live firing was on 3 September 1952. The missile intercepted a drone for the first time on the 11 September
AIM-9 Sidewinder that the captured Sidewinder served as a "university course" in missile design and substantially improved Soviet air-to-air capabilities. They were able to reverse-engineer a copy of the Sidewinder, which was manufactured as the Vympel K-13/R-3S missile, NATO reporting name AA-2 Atoll. There may have been a second source for the copied design: according to Ron Westrum in his book "Sidewinder", the Soviets obtained the plans for Sidewinder from a Swedish Air Force Colonel, Stig Wennerström. (According to Westrum, Soviet engineers copied the AIM-9 so closely that even the part numbers were duplicated, although this has not been confirmed from Soviet