Sidewinder coolant supply limit not show on manual
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I did an experiment to see if the AIM-9M seeker can run for a limited ammount of time. It does.
I switched the missile to COOL and left it there. After 90 minutes, the missile sound pitch becomes lower and the COOL button doesn’t work anymore. I dont’t know if this also happens on the AIM-9X.The thing is, I was looking around the manuals and I didn’t see any mention of this limitation.
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9X is electrically cooled (similar -9E) and doesn’t run out of argon. The L and M are open-cycle (gas venting) cooled which exhausts. USAF has a bottle in the missile, USN has an external bottle in the launcher which lasts longer. 90 minutes would be a worst-case usage rate even with the smaller bottle.
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I did more testing with the 9X. It also has a 90 min limit.