page_title: Aspide
hierarchical_section_title: Aspide
caption_attribution_description: English: ID: DN-ST-85-08192 - An Aspide multirole missle is launched from the Venezuelan frigate ALMIRANTE JOSE DE GARCIA (F 26) during Operation UNITAS XXV
context_page_description: Aspide is an Italian medium range air-to-air and surface-to-air missile produced by Selenia. It is provided with semi-active radar homing seeker. It is very similar to the American AIM-7 Sparrow, using the same airframe, but at the moment of its introduction, the Aspide was provided with monopulse guide instead of the conic scan, which made it more resistant to ECM and more precise. This innovation appeared on the Sparrows only with the late AIM-7M version. Closed-loop hydraulics were also substituted for Sparrow's open-loop type, which gave Aspide better downrange maneuverability.
  This resemblance, and the fact that Selenia was provided with the technology know-how of the AIM-7, has generally led non-Italian press to refer to the Aspide as a Sparrow variant. However, the Aspide had original electronics and warhead, and a new and more powerful engine. Even the control surfaces are different, replacing the original triangular wings, fixed in the air-to-air and instead foldable in the surface-to-air version, to a newly designed common cropped delta fixed version.
context_section_description: Aspide (the Italian name for the adder) is an Italian medium range air-to-air and surface-to-air missile produced by Selenia (now part of the Alenia consortium). It is provided with semi-active radar homing seeker. It is very similar to the American AIM-7 Sparrow, using the same airframe, but at the moment of its introduction, the Aspide was provided with monopulse guide instead of the conic scan, which made it more resistant to ECM and more precise. This innovation appeared on the Sparrows only with the late AIM-7M version. Closed-loop hydraulics were also substituted for Sparrow's open-loop type, which gave Aspide better downrange maneuverability.
  This resemblance, and the fact that Selenia was provided with the technology know-how of the AIM-7 (around 1,000 of which it had produced under license), has generally led non-Italian press to refer to the Aspide as a Sparrow variant. However, the Aspide had original electronics and warhead, and a new and more powerful engine. Even the control surfaces are different, replacing the original triangular wings, fixed in the air-to-air and instead foldable in the surface-to-air version, to a newly designed common cropped delta fixed version.
caption: An Aspide multirole missile launched from a Venezuelan frigate
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