How RTX turns a Cold War MANPAD into a modern air-to-air weapon for helicopters and drones
August 14, 2025
When the FIM-92 Stinger missile first entered service in the early 1980s, it was the archetypal soldier’s weapon – a man-portable tube slung over the shoulder, ready to knock hostile aircraft from the sky.
Four decades later, this Cold War workhorse is enjoying an unlikely second act, soaring from helicopter pylons and even the wings of unmanned aircraft in roles its designers could scarcely have imagined.
The latest chapter is a $51.9 million contract modification from the US Marine Corps Systems Command to RTX’s Raytheon division in Tucson, Arizona. The contract is for Air-to-Air Stinger (ATAS) launchers and all the integration that makes them usable on helicopters and UAVs, and brings the cumulative contract value to $96.25 million.
While on paper it’s just another production order, it underlines how far the Stinger has travelled, both literally and figuratively, from its infantry roots.
From shoulder to sky: The Stinger for helicopters
The Stinger’s original claim to fame was as a quick-reaction, shoulder-fired missile able to take down low-flying aircraft.
Mounting it on helicopters and UAVs, however, gives it a new lease of life. In the ATAS configuration, targeting upgrades enable high-manoeuvre engagements and off-axis seeker lock-ons before launch.
This isn’t a simple bolt-on. The launchers Raytheon produces are tailored to integrate with the host aircraft’s avionics and cockpit controls. That means pilots can cue the missiles directly from helmet-mounted sights, targeting pods, or other onboard sensors, and fire without having to line up the aircraft’s nose on the target.
Typically mounted in pairs or quartets on wing pods, the ATAS has been cleared on platforms including the AH-64 Apache, UH-60 Black Hawk and OH-58D Kiowa Warrior, as well as UAVs like the MQ-1 Predator.
How the RTX Stinger conversion works
Converting a shoulder-fired missile into an airborne weapon demands more than just building a pylon mount. Key integration steps include:
- Avionics interface – linking the missile’s seeker and fire control to the aircraft’s existing systems.
- Mechanical adaptation – engineering pylons to handle vibration, aerodynamic drag, and differences between airframes.
- Seeker upgrades – improved infrared sensors, enhanced signal processing, and the ability to acquire targets before launch from off-axis positions.
- Environmental hardening – ensuring reliable operation in the vibration, temperature and acceleration profiles of an aircraft rather than a human shoulder.
Technically, the missile remains familiar: just under five feet long, weighing around 35 pounds, and able to hit targets up to five miles away at more than twice the speed of sound.
But enhancements such as upgraded batteries, night-fighting capability, and the 2019 addition of proximity fuzes for counter-UAS work have kept it lethal against a widening range of threats.
In the US Marine Corps, the ATAS feeds into the Ground-Based Air Defence (GBAD) and Marine Air Defence Integrated System (MADIS) programmes, where it serves as the principal low-altitude aerial defence weapon.
Future-proofing a Cold War survivor
Combat-tested in four major conflicts and credited with more than 270 fixed- and rotary-wing kills, the Stinger remains in service with all four US military branches and 19 allied nations.
The Reprogrammable Microprocessor (RMP) variant boasts over 90% success rates in reliability and training tests, making it effective against everything from helicopters to cruise missiles.
The current USMC order also funds ancillary equipment, training, integration engineering, and parts obsolescence management to keep the system viable well into the future.
In parallel, a Service Life Extension Programme is refurbishing existing rounds, while the US Army pursues the Red Wasp solid-fuel ramjet demonstrator and the Next-Generation Short-Range Interceptor (NGSRI) with Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. Early testing points to faster speeds, longer ranges, and stronger resistance to electronic countermeasures.
For now, though, the Stinger continues to prove that an old soldier can learn new tricks, swapping the mud and dust of the battlefield for the sleek pylons of modern aircraft, and showing that in aerial warfare, adaptability can be just as valuable as raw firepower.
