“Surprised that they haven’t been used more often.”
The most important component of any man-portable air defense missile is the coolant battery unit.
The battery powers the unit and the coolant freezes the seeker head making it sensitive to IR.
Without the coolant battery unit, the missile doesn’t work.
You can only use the CBU 2 times before it dies.
Also the CBU has a very limited shelf life.
You need a pretty sophisticated industrial base to make these.
The US only supplied the Mujahideen 1 CBU with each Stinger. This kept Stinger “perishable” and not easily transferable.
That’s why we haven’t seen those Stingers we left behind in Afghanistan being used again.
Now unless ISIS got there hands on “fresh” coolant battery units, the missile they have are pretty much worthless.
That’s an interesting fact to learn. Thanks for sharing.