The development of air-to-air missiles has gone through several stages.

1in April, 944, Germany made the X-4 line air-to-air missile for the first time, but before it was put into use, World War II ended. After the war, the development of air-to-air missiles went through three stages.

The first stage was from the mid-1940s to the mid-1950s. Air-to-air missiles can only attack subsonic bombers with poor maneuverability, with a range of 2 ~ 6 kilometers, mainly including American rattlesnake AIM-9B and Soviet AA- 1 missiles.

The second stage is from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s. The appearance of supersonic bombers and the development of electronic technology have greatly improved the range, lateral overload, applicable altitude and speed of air-to-air missiles. The guidance law generally adopts proportional guidance, and missiles have certain interception and all-weather combat capabilities, mainly including the American "Sparrow" AIM-7E missile. However, the application results in Vietnam and Middle East wars prove that this air-to-air missile is not suitable for targets with high attack speed and great maneuverability.

The third stage is from the late 1960s to the 1990s. Air-to-air missiles have made great progress in long-range, omni-directional, all-weather interception and close combat performance, such as AIM-54C, AIM- 120 and AIM-9L of advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles in the United States and AA- 165438+ of the Soviet Union. Since 198 1, the United States and Libya, Syria and Israel, Britain and Argentina have all used close combat missiles in air combat, and achieved remarkable results, greatly improving the position of air-to-air missiles in air combat. Since 1950s, China has developed several air-to-air missile equipment units, such as PL-5, PL-9C, PL- 12, etc.