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Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand announced yesterday, Thursday, that Canada will donate 43 AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles to Ukraine, from the stocks of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), and indicated that this donation will help Ukraine secure its airspace in the face of ongoing Russian attacks.
This is the first time that the Ukrainian Air Force has acquired these advanced missiles which are expected to undermine the air dominance of Russian fighter jets in Ukraine.
At the moment, air defense systems such as the Patriot and IRIS-T have not been effective in shooting down Russian planes as they bomb Ukrainian targets at will.
How effective is Sidewinder for Ukrainians?
The AIM-9X was reportedly used by a Turkish F-16 to shoot down a Russian Su-24 during the Syrian war in November 2015. Ankara claimed to have warned the Su-24 ten times before firing the missile. Putin acknowledged the incident but did not name any missiles.
In June 2017, a US Navy Super Hornet fighter jet fired a Sidewinder missile at a Su-22 of the Syrian Arab Air Force, but the missile missed its target.
According to CNN, the Super Hornet closed in on the Su-22 at 1.5 miles. The Super Hornet fired an AIM-9X missile, and the Syrian pilot fired flares to draw the infrared homing missile away from the fighter. The trick worked, and the American missile missed its target. The American aircraft fired an AMRAAM missile, which, using radar guidance, was unaffected by the flares. This time the Su-22 fell.
