History
The Rb 05A was developed as an air-to-surface missile for the AJ 37 Viggen in the late 1960s. The supersonic speed was deemed necessary to reduce the threat of surface-to-air missiles. The missile would usually be launched after a high-speed attack run on very low altitude and climb to 400m for launch. The aircraft would immediately descend again and the pilot guiding the missile optically with a joystick.
Guidance commands are transmitted via a microwave transmission link. Tracking flares on the missile aid the pilot in guiding the missile on target.
It was later discovered that the missile was effective in air-to-air against non-maneuvering aircraft as well.
A TV-guided variant Rb 05B was proposed to the Swedish Air Force in the early 1970s, but was turned down in favor of the AGM-65 Maverick/Rb 75 instead.
Read more about this topic: Rb 05
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Culture, the acquainting ourselves with the best that has been known and said in the world, and thus with the history of the human spirit.”
—Matthew Arnold (1822–1888)
“What would we not give for some great poem to read now, which would be in harmony with the scenery,—for if men read aright, methinks they would never read anything but poems. No history nor philosophy can supply their place.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Let it suffice that in the light of these two facts, namely, that the mind is One, and that nature is its correlative, history is to be read and written.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)