EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif -- The Air Force Flight Test Center received a one-week suspense from the Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force to conduct a short-notice, quick reaction test of the Army’s FIMN-92 Stinger surface-to-air missile against a Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. Colonel Steven Cameron, the 412th Test Wing Commander, designated the effort a test acceleration in order to meet the requirement.
The FIM-92 Stinger was a man-portable air-defense system that operates as an infrared homing surface-to-air missile. It can be adapted to fire from a wide variety of ground vehicles and helicopters. Developed in the United States, it entered service in 1981 and is used by the militaries of the United States and 29 other countries. It is principally manufactured by Raytheon Missile Systems and produced under license by EADS in Germany and by ROKETSAN in Turkey, with 70,000 missiles produced.
Since 1984 the Stinger has been issued to many U.S. Navy warships for point defense, particularly in Middle Eastern waters, with a three-man team that can perform other duties when not conducting Stinger training or maintenance. Until it was decommissioned in September 1993, the U.S. Navy had at least one Stinger Gunnery Detachment attached to Beachmaster Unit Two in Little Creek Virginia. The sailors of this detachment would deploy to carrier battlegroups in teams of two to four sailors per ship as requested by Battle Group Commanders.