Air to Air Missiles or AAMs are used by air-superiority fighters to attack enemy aircraft from a minimum of 1 mile away. In the case of the U.S. Navy's F-14 Tomcat, up to six simultaneous targets can be fired upon, and from ranges up to 40 miles away. (For information on air-to-ground missiles, see AGMs).

Air to Air Missiles are also used for self defense, for instance bombers or reconaissance aircraft will use AAMs to keep themselves safe from opponents fighter aircraft while performing their missions. A more recent example is the use by helicopters on the battlefield to defend against attack fighter aircraft swooping in to "clean up" the battlefield.

Typically AAMs are supersonic, being capable of themselves being launched while at supersonic speeds and accellerating to catch and destroy quickly the targeted aircraft.

Modern AAMs are usually infrared guided (the seeker head of the missile makes changes to control surfaces as it follows the high temperature source it was aimed at) or radar guided (the missile's seeking head follows the target which was designated by a radar lock from the aircraft, and then follows on its own radar.

Radar used in radar guided missiles typically uses a techinque called SARH or Semi- Active Radar Homing. This allows the radar to operate in a pulsed fashion, thus not providing a target itself to missiles which might be launched to take out radar emitters. (See also AGMs ).

Infrared guided missiles, as mentioned previously, are guided by the thermal energy "displayed" by the target aircraft. Some have been known to be used against ground targets which also emit high heat signatures, but this is very rare. The seeker for infrared guided missiles (also called IR seekers), tend to be very sensistive to shock. To provide for more sensistivity, many seekers are cooled while on board the aircraft via low temperature liquids like liquid nitrogen or liquid oxygen, via aircraft refrigeration units. When the rocket "leaves the rail" (i.e. is launched), the sensor begins to lose sensitivity, but is also getting closer to the source.

Some missiles use both the IR and radar guidance methods. This can be a radar lock on from the aircraft, radar guided to within pursuit range, then IR guided to terminate in destruction. Or the missile could be IR designated, then when closing for the kill achieve a close up radar lock on and then homing in that way.

In either guidance case, the AAM must attempt to catch its prey in a very short time, because due to weight limitations of the carrying aircraft, there is fuel only for a few minutes "run" to target. With Mach 3 or Mach 4 missiles, this run is in terms of seconds. The target aircraft may try to maneuver drastically enough to force the missile to "fly by" or continue to create a condition where the missile loses its lock, even if only for a moment. By getting "outside the envelop" or manuevering where the missile's seeker is less sensitive to your aircraft, a pilot can cause the AAM to self destruct because it no longer has a target.

AAMs typically are proximity armed, that is, they detect when they are within lethal range and explode, rather than waiting to actually strike the target aircraft. This way, if a missile just misses striking the target aircraft, it will still be able to cause substantial damage. And since the typical aspect for missile attack is from the rear, the missile will most likely damage critical air surfaces such as rudder, horizontal or vertical stablizers or rear portions of the engine. Typically, the IR guided AAM will fly right up the target aircrafts engine outlet before exploding.

Warheads on AAMs are typically form 10 to 40 pounds of blast fragmentation design. One exception was the Genie nuclear warheaded AAM flown on the F-106 Air Defense Command fighter interceptor. This missile is probably not flown anymore, but are surely in storage for the eventuality that one might be needed. However, only a few F-106s are still flying, and these are as drones, so there may no longer be any aircraft with the proper fire control systems to carry the bulky, antiquated weapon.

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