FIM - 92 Stinger The FIM - 92 Stinger is a personal portable infrared homing surface - to - air missile ( SAM ) , which can be adapted to fire from ground vehicles or helicopters ( as an AAM ) , developed in the United States and entered into service in 1981 . Used by the militaries of the United States and by 29 other countries , it is manufactured by Raytheon Missile Systems and under license by EADS in Germany , with 70 , 000 missiles produced . It is classified as a Man - Portable Air - Defense System ( MANPADS ) . Description . Light to carry and easy to operate , the FIM - 92 Stinger is a passive surface - to - air missile , shoulder - fired by a single operator , although officially it requires two . The FIM - 92B missile can also be fired from the M - 1097 Avenger and M6 Linebacker . The missile is also capable of being deployed from a Humvee Stinger rack , and can be used by paratroopers . A helicopter launched version exists called Air - to - Air Stinger ( ATAS ) . The missile is long and in diameter with 10 cm fins . The missile itself weighs , while the missile with launcher weighs approximately . The Stinger is launched by a small ejection motor that pushes it a safe distance from the operator before engaging the main two - stage solid - fuel sustainer , which accelerates it to a maximum speed of Mach 2 . 2 ( 750 m / s ) . The warhead is a 3 kg penetrating hit - to - kill warhead type with an impact fuze and a self - destruct timer . To fire the missile , a BCU ( Battery Coolant Unit ) is inserted into the handguard . This shoots a stream of argon gas into the system , as well as a chemical energy charge that enables the acquisition indicators and missile to get power . The batteries are somewhat sensitive to abuse , with a limited amount of gas . Over time , and without proper maintenance , they can become unserviceable . The IFF system receives power from a rechargeable battery . Guidance to the target is initially through proportional navigation , then switches to another mode that directs the missile towards the target airframe instead of its exhaust plume . The launcher tube can be reused and reloaded with more missiles . There are three main variants in use : the Stinger basic , STINGER - Passive Optical Seeker Technique ( POST ) , and STINGER - Reprogrammable Microprocessor ( RMP ) . The Stinger - RMP is so - called because of its ability to load a new set of software via ROM chip inserted in the grip at the depot . If this download to the missile fails during power - up , basic functionality runs off the on - board ROM . The four - processor RMP has 4 KB of RAM for each processor . Since the downloaded code runs from RAM , there is little space to spare , particularly for processors dedicated to seeker input processing and target analysis . The RMP has a dual - detector seeker : IR and UV . This allows it to distinguish targets from countermeasures much better than the Redeye , which was IR - only . While modern flares can have an IR signature that is closely matched to the launching aircraft ' s engine exhaust , there is a readily distinguishable difference in UV signature between flares and jet engines . History . Initial work on the missile was begun by General Dynamics in 1967 as the " Redeye II " . It was accepted for further development by the U . S . Army in 1971 and designated FIM - 92 ; the " Stinger " appellation was chosen in 1972 . Because of technical difficulties that dogged testing , the first shoulder launch was not until mid - 1975 . Production of the FIM - 92A began in 1978 to replace the FIM - 43 Redeye . An improved " Stinger " with a new seeker , the FIM - 92B , was produced from 1983 alongside the FIM - 92A . Production of both the A and B types ended in 1987 with around 16 , 000 missiles produced . The replacement FIM - 92C had been developed from 1984 and production began in 1987 . The first examples were delivered to front - line units in 1989 . C - type missiles were fitted with a reprogrammable electronics system to allow for upgrades . The missiles which received a counter - measures upgrade were designated D and later upgrades to the D were designated G . The FIM - 92E or Block I was developed from 1992 and delivered from 1995 ( certain sources state that the FIM - 92D is also part of the Block I development ) . The main changes were again in the sensor and the software , improving the missile ' s performance against smaller and low - signature targets . A software upgrade in 2001 was designated F . Block II development began in 1996 using a new focal plane array sensor to improve the missile ' s effectiveness in " high clutter " environments and increase the engagement range to about 25 , 000 feet ( 7 , 600 m ) . Production was scheduled for 2004 , but " Jane ' s " reports that this may be on hold . Japanese Self - Defense Forces have the also derived type . Since 1984 the Stinger has been issued to many U . S . Navy warship s 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 battlegroup s in teams of two to four sailors per ship as requested by Battle Group Commanders . Service . Falklands War . The Stinger ' s combat debut occurred during the Falklands War fought between Britain and Argentina . At the onset of the conflict soldiers of the British Special Air Service had been clandestinely equipped with six missiles , although they had received little instruction in their use . The sole SAS trooper who had received training on the system , and was due to train other troops , was killed in a helicopter crash on 19 May . Nonetheless , on 21 May 1982 an SAS soldier engaged and shot down an Argentine Pucará ground attack aircraft with a Stinger . On 30 May , at about 11 . 00 a . m . , an Aerospatiale SA - 330 Puma helicopter was brought down by another missile , also fired by the SAS , in the vicinity of Mount Kent . Six National Gendarmerie Special Forces were killed and eight more wounded . The main MANPADS used by both sides during the Falklands War was the Blowpipe missile . Soviet War in Afghanistan . The story of Stingers in Afghanistan is told in primarily by the western sources , notably in the references written in " Charlie Wilson ' s War " by George Crile , and " Ghost Wars " by Steve Coll . In late 1985 , several groups , such as Free the Eagle , began arguing the CIA was not doing enough to support the Mujahideen in the Russian - Afghan war . Michael Pillsbury , Vincent Cannistraro , and others put enormous bureaucratic pressure on the CIA to begin providing the Stinger to the rebels . The idea was controversial because up to that point , the CIA had been operating with the pretense that the United States was not involved in the war directly , for various reasons . All weapons supplied at that point were non - U . S . made weapons , like Type 56 rifles purchased from China , and AK - 47 and AKM AK derivatives purchased from Egypt . The final say - so came down to President General Muhammad Zia - ul - Haq through whom the CIA had to pass all of its funding and weapons to the Mujahideen . President Zia constantly had to gauge how much he could " make the pot boil " in Afghanistan without provoking a Soviet invasion of his own country . According to George Crile III , U . S . congressman Charlie Wilson ' s relationship with Zia was instrumental in the final go - ahead for the Stinger introduction . Wilson and his associates at first viewed the Stinger as " just adding another component to the lethal mix we we ' re building " . Their increasingly successful Afghanistan strategy , formed largely by Michael G . Vickers , was based on a broad mix of weapons , tactics , and logistics , not a ' silver bullet solution ' of a single weapon . Furthermore the previous attempts to provide MANPAD s to the Mujahideen , namely the SA7 and Blowpipe , hadn ' t worked very well . Engineer Ghaffar of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar ' s Hezb - i - Islami , brought down the first Hind gunship with a Stinger on September 25 , 1986 near Jalalabad . The Central Intelligence Agency eventually supplied nearly 500 Stingers ( some sources claim 1 , 500 – 2 , 000 ) to the Mujahideen in Afghanistan as part of Operation Cyclone . with the supply of 250 launchers . The impact of the stinger on the outcome of the war is contested . It should be noted that Soviet , and later , Russian , accounts give little significance to the stinger . According to Crile , who includes information from Alexander Prokhanov , the Stinger was a " turning point " . Milt Bearden saw it as a " force multiplier " and morale booster . Charlie Wilson , the congressman behind the United States ' Operation Cyclone , described the first Stinger Mi - 24 shootdowns in 1986 as one of the three crucial moments of his experience in the war , saying " we never really won a set piece battle before September 26 , and then we never lost one afterwards " . He was given the first spent Stinger tube as a gift and kept it on his office wall . The last Stingers were supplied in 1988 and after the 1989 Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan , the U . S . attempted to buy back the Stinger missiles , with a $ 55 million program launched in 1990 to buy back around 300 missiles ( US $ 183 , 300 each ) . The U . S . government collected most of the Stingers it had delivered , but by 1996 around 600 were unaccounted for and some found their way into Croatia , Iran , Sri Lanka , Qatar and North Korea . According to the CIA , already in August 1988 the U . S . had demanded from Qatar the return of Stinger missiles . Wilson later told CBS he " lived in terror " that a civilian airliner would be shot down by a Stinger , but he did not have misgivings about having provided Stingers to defeat the Soviets . Angolan Civil War . The Reagan administration provided 310 Stingers to Jonas Savimbi ' s UNITA movement in Angola between 1986 and 1989 . As in Afghanistan , efforts to recover missiles after the end of hostilities proved incomplete . The battery of a Stinger lasts for four or five years , so any weapons supplied in the 1980s would now be inoperative . Libyan invasion of Chad . The Chadian government received Stinger missiles from the United States , when Libya invaded the northern part of the African country . On 8 October 1987 , a Libyan Su - 22MK was shot down by a FIM - 92A fired by Chadian forces . The pilot , Capt . Diya al - Din , ejected and was captured . He was later granted political asylum by the French government . During the recovery operation , a Libyan MiG - 23MS was shot down by a FIM - 92A . Chechen War . Russian officials claimed several times the presence of US - made Stinger missiles in the hands of the Chechen militia and insurgents . They attributed few of their aerial losses to the American MANPADS . The presence of such missiles was confirmed by photo evidence even if it is not clear their actual number nor their origin . Sri Lankan Civil War . The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam also managed to acquire one or several Stingers , possibly from former Mujahideen stocks , and used at least one to down a Sri Lanka Air Force Mi - 24 on November 10 , 1997 . Operation Enduring Freedom . Some of the Stingers that the U . S . supplied starting from 1987 , could have been used during the U . S . intervention in Afghanistan . Due to political reasons , U . S . and coalition forces generally downplay or even deny any MANPADS involvement in the Afghan War by Afghan insurgents , attributing the attacks to unguided RPGs . However it became clear that coalition aircraft came under attack by different types of MANPADS in different instances . United States . The current U . S . inventory contains 13 , 400 missiles . The total cost of the program is $ 7 , 281 , 000 , 000 . It is rumored that the United States Secret Service has Stinger missiles to defend the President , a notion that has never been dispelled ; however , U . S . Secret Service plans favor moving the President to a safer place in the event of an attack rather than shooting down the plane , lest the missile ( or the wreckage of the target aircraft ) hit innocents . During the 1980s , the Stinger was used to support different US - aligned guerrilla forces , notably the Afghan Mujahidins , the Chad government against the Libyan invasion and the Angolan UNITA . The Nicaraguan contras were not provided with Stingers due to the lack of fixed wing aircraft of the Sandinista government , as such the previous generation FIM - 43 Redeye was considered adequate . Syrian civil war . In the Syrian civil war , Turkey reportedly supplied the anti - government rebels with FIM - 92 Stingers .