Well, simply said an A2A missile is either heat seeking or radar seeking... The heat seeking (as the name says) seeks for a source of heat, just like
the back, engine of a plane... The heat seeking missiles are pretty good and a good example of one is the american
AIM-9X... The problem with the heat seeking missiles are that if the
missile finds a bigger source of heat, it might turn and chase after that one instead... That's why fighters and transport planes nowadays have
"flares" wich are small burning hot pieces that the plane can drop when it flies, if lucky, the missile will "go after the flare instead"
F/A-18 flaring...
The other type is the radar missie... in a way it's much harder to chagne thier direction, however it is possible... using different ways of darar
jamming the enemy plane can't lock the "good plane on it's radar"... These sorts of missiles are also in a way better, since you also can use them
for ground targets... An example for a radar missile is the american
AIM-7X...
interested to know more?
-wkipiedia-
-wikipedia-2-
