Man-portable air-defense system

Man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADS or MPADS) are shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles (SLSAMs). They are typically guided weapons and are a threat to low-flying aircraft, especially helicopters.

MANPADS were developed in the 1940s to provide military ground forces with protection from enemy aircraft. They have received a great deal of attention, partly because armed groups have used them against commercial airliners. These missiles, affordable and widely available through a variety of sources, have been used successfully over the past three decades both in military conflicts, as well as by terrorist organizations.

Twenty-five countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Sweden and Russia produce man-portable air defense systems. Possession, export, and trafficking in such weapons is officially tightly controlled, due to the threat they pose to civil aviation, although such efforts have not always been successful.

The missiles are about 1.5 to 1.8 m (5 to 6 ft) in length and weigh about 17 to 18 kg (37 to 40 lb), depending on the model. Shoulder-fired SAMs generally have a target detection range of about 10 km (6 mi) and an engagement range of about 6 km (4 mi), so aircraft flying at 6,100 metres (20,000 ft) or higher are relatively safe. However, the FIM-92 Stinger (1996 version) has a range of 26,000 feet (7,900 m).

The acronym MANPADS is commonly mistaken to have a singular form of "MANPAD"—this is incorrect, as even a singular unit is still a system and would have the final S in the acronym.

Borrowing from the concept of the simple and effective anti-tank Panzerfaust, the Fliegerfaust, an unguided multibarreled 20mm rocket launcher, was developed by Nazi Germany in 1944. The weapon never reached mass production due to the end of World War II.

Following World War II, Soviet designers also experimented with unguided multibarreled rocket launchers but this design concept was abandoned in favor of guided missiles equipped with an infrared sensor.

Infrared shoulder-fired missiles are designed to home-in on a heat source on an aircraft, typically the engine exhaust plume, and detonate a warhead in or near the heat source to disable the aircraft. These missiles use passive guidance, meaning that they do not emit signals to detect a heat source, which makes them difficult to detect by targeted aircraft employing countermeasure systems.

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