The AIM-7 Sparrow is a modern American medium-range air-to-air missile. Its first prototypes appeared in the early 1950s, and it entered the US armed forces in 1956, and it still remains there. The AIM-7 Sparrow is a solid fuel-powered missile with a range of up to 70 kilometers, capable of carrying a warhead weighing 40 kg with a total curb weight of 213 kg.
The AIM-7 Sparrow missile was developed by Raytheon and features - modern versions - a semi-active guidance system. The genesis of this type of missile dates back to the mid-1940s, when work on guided air-to-air missiles began on the order of the US Navy. From 1956, successive versions of the Sparrow rocket, designated Sparrow I, II and III, were introduced into equipment, however, they had many "childhood diseases", especially problems with guidance in the earliest versions. In 1963, however, the modernized AIM-7E missile was introduced into service, but it was inferior to the AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles produced in parallel. The AIM-7F Sparrow missile turned out to be a big change in terms of quality, with an effective range of up to 45 kilometers, an effective and reliable guidance system, and a significantly improved propulsion. In the 1980s, another version of the missile was introduced: the AIM-7M, which had a modernized guidance system that was much less susceptible to interference. It is estimated that over 70,000 copies of the Sparrow missile have been produced during the long history of the Sparrow missile. In the US armed forces, it was or is carried by such aircraft as: F-4 Phantom II, F-15 Eagle, F-16 C / D Fighting Falcon or F-14 Tomcat. The users of the AIM-7 Sparrow missiles were or are also many other countries, for example: Australia, Egypt, Greece, Jordan, Kuwait, Turkey and the United Kingdom.