Editing Infrared homing (section)

===Later designs===
[[File:SRAAM missile.jpg|thumb|right|SRAAM was designed to address most of the problems found with earlier IR missiles in a very short-range weapon.]]
[[File:AIM-9L DF-ST-82-10199.jpg|thumb|right|More than half a century after its introduction, upgraded versions of the Sidewinder remain the primary IR missile in most western air forces.]]
[[File:R-73.jpg|thumb|right|The R-73 was a leap forward for Soviet designs, and cause for considerable worry among western air forces.]]

As Vietnam revealed the terrible performance of existing missile designs, a number of efforts began to address them. In the US, minor upgrades to the Sidewinder were carried out as soon as possible, but more broadly pilots were taught proper engagement techniques so they would not fire as soon as they heard the missile tone, and would instead move to a position where the missile would be able to continue tracking even after launch. This problem also led to efforts to make new missiles that would hit their targets even if launched under these less-than-ideal positions. In the UK this led to the [[SRAAM]] project, which was ultimately the victim of continually changing requirements.<ref name=19810606flightglobal>{{cite journal |url=http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1981/1981%20-%201812.html |title=ASRAAM - Europe's new dogfight missile |journal=Flight International |date=6 June 1981 |page=1742 |access-date=9 October 2015 |archive-date=7 January 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180107232853/https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1981/1981%20-%201812.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Two US programmes, [[AIM-82]] and [[AIM-95 Agile]], met similar fates.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Naval Weapons Center AIM-95 Agile |journal=Flight International |date=8 May 1975 |page=765}}</ref>

New seeker designs began to appear during the 1970s and led to a series of more advanced missiles. A major upgrade to the Sidewinder began, providing it with a seeker that was sensitive enough to track from any angle, giving the missile ''all aspect'' capability for the first time. This was combined with a new scanning pattern that helped reject confusing sources (like the sun reflecting off clouds) and improve the guidance towards the target. A small number of the resulting L models were rushed to the UK just prior to their engagement in the [[Falklands War]], where they achieved an 82% kill ratio, and the misses were generally due to the target aircraft flying out of range.{{sfn|Hollway|2013}} The Argentine aircraft, equipped with Sidewinder B and [[R.550 Magic]], could only fire from the rear aspect, which the British pilots simply avoided by always flying directly at them. The L was so effective that aircraft hurried to add flare countermeasures, which led to another minor upgrade to the M model to better reject flares.{{Citation needed|date=November 2024}} The L and M models would go on to be the backbone of Western air forces through the end of the [[Cold War]] era.

An even larger step was taken by the Soviets with their [[R-73 (missile)|R-73]], which replaced the K-13 and others with a dramatically improved design. This missile introduced the ability to be fired at targets completely out of view of the seeker; after firing the missile would orient itself in the direction indicated by the launcher and then attempt to lock on. When combined with a [[helmet mounted sight]], the missile could be cued and targeted without the launch aircraft first having to point itself at the target. This proved to offer significant advantages in combat, and caused great concern for Western forces.<ref name=":0">{{cite web |publisher=Federation of American Scientists |title=AA-11 ARCHER R-73 |url=http://fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/missile/row/aa-11.htm |date=3 September 2000 |access-date=9 October 2015 |archive-date=2 September 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160902160451/http://fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/missile/row/aa-11.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The solution to the R-73 problem was initially going to be the [[ASRAAM]], a pan-European design that combined the performance of the R-73 with an imaging seeker. In a wide-ranging agreement, the US agreed to adopt ASRAAM for their new short-range missile, while the Europeans would adopt [[AMRAAM]] as their medium-range weapon. However, ASRAAM soon ran into intractable delays as each of the member countries decided a different performance metric was more important. The US eventually bowed out of the program, and instead adapted the new seekers developed for ASRAAM on yet another version of the Sidewinder, the AIM-9X.{{Citation needed|reason=Some sort of citation is required for the trajectory and eventual outcome of these negotations|date=November 2024}} This so extends its lifetime that it will have been in service for almost a century when the current aircraft leave service. ASRAAM did, eventually, deliver a missile that has been adopted by a number of European forces and many of the same technologies have appeared in the Chinese PL-10 and Israeli [[Python (missile)|Python-5]].{{Citation needed|date=November 2024}}