Rearward Air to air launched missiles. Impractical or starter for 10

[MJ89]

https://www.aviacionline.com/2022/02/tu-160m-bomber-will-be-able-to-fire-air-to-air-missiles-backwards/

And there's some that thought the Lightning and Jag were against the grain with its over wing missiles.

[NutLoose]

Early jags carried sidewinders under wing :)

On a side note, Germany during WW2 trialled a rearward firing flamethrower to discourage rearward attacks on their bombers, unfortunately it had the opposite effect as attacking fighters believed the flames were the result of them attacking, so pressed home the attack, hence the system was ditched.

[ETOPS]

I'm pretty certain Soviet era Migs had a rearward firing missile - an expert will be along in a moment :rolleyes:

[safetypee]

The concept of rearward firing missiles was seriously considered for the V force circa 1970.

The very astute chief designer at Hatfield (guided weapons) - Polish origin, identified the need to throw a relatively small device out of the back of an aircraft, with lateral - vertical manoeuvre capability, and let the opposition run into it.

The counter argument was that ground based defences and planned air to air weapons would have an all aspect capability and much greater range; thus the task was to design a very agile, all aspect self defence missile.

The technical complexities and projected cost, precluded full development because more conventional defences, jamming and IR decoys were more practical and cheaper - forward firing chaff.

Aspects of that programme were know as ‘Taildog’, but this title was used - misused in other contexts.

[Ohrly]

I thought the whole idea behind the AIM-9X block II was that is could be fired at a target that was behind the launching aircraft, and guided using the datalink and helmet display.

[Old Bricks]

Trying to get back (almost) to the thread, I have no knowledge of rearward-firing missiles, but the Soviets certainly had rearwards-firing gun pods on ground-attack Fitters and Floggers, and possibly Frogfoot in the 80s - and maybe even now. I think that they were supposed to offer a "spray" of 23mm(?) to the rear as the aircraft pulled away from its primary front-facing attack. Pretty inaccurate, but I suppose it would hope to keep troops on the ground heads down.

[Timelord]

The concept of rearward firing missiles was seriously considered for the V force circa 1970.

.

We always reckoned a bag of nuts and bolts in the brake chute bay would be better than nothing.

[safetypee]

Time… nuts and bolts, indeed. Or just the braking chute to deter / distract a guns attack.

I recall the GA mud movers laying down a 1000lb retard, ground debris, for the opposition to fly into.

[ETOPS]

Found this article about a development of the Archer R-73R

https://combatace.com/forums/topic/75220-rearward-firing-missile/

[MJ89]

The concept is abit of a headcratcher, for me atleast if it is to be thought of a missile literally launched rearward, either from a pylon or dropped into air stream. once it has left the aircraft it would be going in the forward (Rearward to the missile :'D ) direction by 250-800 knots, i'm imagining a scenario of a bomber intercept. or even an incoming missile, would the missile have less range or waste energy boosting to 0 before acceleration towards its target from that point it was fired.

[Bing]

MJ89, you're right that it would have to boost itself from a negative speed to a positive one. On the plus side for self defence purposes the target will be flying towards it...

[HOVIS]

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/305x500/0586201343_7dd41a64825d1a4102d576d738ec962d59adefe4.jpg
Sounds familiar. Didn't the Old Dog have this sort of thing? Been a while since I read it.

[The Oberon]

MJ89, the SLAMRAAM, surface launched AIM-120, loses half it's range compared to the AMRAAM, due to it having no forward speed and having to climb when launched. Going back even further, when the V-force went low level, Blue Steel lost half it's range having to climb to it's operating height before going horizontal.

[LowObservable]

I'm pretty certain Soviet era Migs had a rearward firing missile - an expert will be along in a moment :rolleyes:

You rang, sir?
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/378x500/rear_firing_1273b49da0d34ed678743f54eb8f0e3ceb2ea9fb.jpg
Looks like some kind of retro-thrust device to get it clear of the launch aircraft in the shortest possible time, then motor ignites at V=0 and the thrust-vectoring spins it around to acquire and engage the target.

At the time this was heard about, there was speculation that the targeting system was to be installed in the big tail sting of the Su-34.

[mike1964]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pye_Wacket

[ETOPS]

Many thanks LowObservable I was sure I’d seen that in the past.

[1771 DELETE]

The Nimrod MR1 used to have a 57 mm rearward firing gun, which when the aircraft speed was correctly dialed in, selected the number of firing cartridges thus dropping the shell vertically in theory. It was a PITA due to misfires and jams.