AAM-1 Sonderwang

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AAM-1 Sonderwang
AAM-1 Sonderwang.png
"That's Sonderwang"
Type Short-range air-to-air missile
Place of origin Unified Governorates of Benacia
Designer ESB Design Bureau
Manufacturer
Warhead Directed fragmentation
Detonation mechanism Contact or proximity
Guidance system Infra-red homing
Launch platform

As the remaining stocks of air-to-air missiles, amassed by the Imperial Forces during the Sxiro-Jingdaoese Confrontation and then substantially expended during the War of Lost Brothers, inherited by the Black Legions at the time of the Kalirion Fracture were discovered to be near, or in many instances - substantially past, their certified service lifespans, the race was on for Benacia Command to develop and introduce into service replacement systems. Whilst it was fortuitous that the S-2 surface-to-air missile could be launched from airborne platforms, and indeed could be shoehorned into a variety of roles for which it had not originally been envisaged, it was a bulky missile that only larger aircraft such as the Shrike or Nereid could carry.

The Sonderwang was only ever intended as as a stopgap short-range air to air missile, and work soon began in 1675 to develop a scaled down version of the S-2 Standard Missile for mass production as a replacement. Budgetary problems afflicting the Sonderbotschaft program during the 1680s, combined with the assessed adequacy of existing missile systems against the majority of Bassarid and Jingdaoese airframes then in service, meant that the lifespan of the Sonderwang as an operational air-to-air missile was extended into the 1690's.