ATOLL: The Soviet Sidewinder Is More Interesting Than You Might Think

Ask most aviation enthusiasts about the Soviet Atoll missile and they’ll likely tell you the same things. It is a copy of the AIM-9B Sidewinder. Most of us also know that the original missile that was copied by the Soviets was fired by a Taiwanese F-86 Sabre in the Taiwan Straits. It hit the MiG-17 it was targeting, but the warhead failed to detonate.

These things are both true. But there’s more to the Atoll than just a story of fortunate acquisition and smart reverse engineering. Although it started as a very close copy of the Sidewinder, it was not exactly the same and, like the Sidewinder, it developed along its own path. Unlike the Sidewinder, that development path was terminated as the Soviet Union replaced it with an indigenous design to fit with other aspects of their tactical aviation concept.

I believe that understanding the Atoll is important if we’re to understand the history of air-to-air combat in the 1960s and 1970s. In this video, I explore its history, the myths of its origin and its legacy. I hope you enjoy it!

[thegenericguy]

A dual feature of the first generation of ‘dogfight’ missiles - the R-60 and Magic I - would be cool to see. Great work as always

[Blakk]

K-13 was the index of the r&d project ordered by the government, internal index of the project in the research "bureau" was Object 310, and the missile was adopted for service as R-3

[AdurianJ]

Yay you used my Wikipedia picture of Aiir to Air missiles for the Draken.

Took it at the Missile museum in Sweden, they have a really good selection of RB04 missiles including development variants A and B

[landreauferris]

Something about that Mig 21 always brings that little boy joy/enthusiasm for jets and aviation in general.Great videos Sir;I thank you sincerely.

[Breakfast]

It's crazy how much more advanced and capable missiles from the 70's and 80's are compared to the one from the vac tube era

[alancranford]

I attended a Plane Talk at the Hill Aerospace Museum a decade ago. The guest speaker was a navigator on a C-124 Globemaster. One of his stories was a very secret 1958 flight to Taiwan with 100 Sidewinder missiles. During the Q&A portion of his presentation I suggested that he was involved in the first combat use of the Sidewinder missiles.

[tunaconsuma]

I believe an atoll was fired in anger by soviet air forces when a Turkish RF-84 entered soviet airspace. A MiG-21 was vectored by gcs to intercept it. Both missiles were fired but missed as they were used outside the launch envelope. This led to a revision of the GCS system as they had no idea what the launch envelopes actually were for the intercepting migs, and set them up for impossible attacks.

[youngbloodbear]

One small correction, not *all* the parts were interchangeable between aim-9B and k-13, unless you mean at the module level such as ‘guidance section’. Besides the particular electronic components, the main differences im aware of are the optical path having an additional lens in the support to the secondary mirror where the sidewinder has a flat plate, and in the servo a different support was used for the canards, a bearing in the soviet case and a fairly unique blade mechanism in the the US case which also housed the piezoelectric crystals that comprised the impact fuze

[darykeng]

6:00 I wish more people understood that it, yes, easier than just inventing something from scratch, but it still immensely complex and hard objective to reverse engineer the tech and adapt for your own standards of machinery, materials and production capabilities

[StrikeWyvern]

Loved this video, do you think you'll ever do one on the R-60 to R-73? Maybe even the other long range IR missiles like the R-24T and R-27T. Those are also very interesting missiles

[Sacto]

I think the Russians also figured out the early Sidewinders were _terrible_ missiles. But it took them a while to develop their own indigenous design missile, especially with a actual reasonably functioning seeker.

[mattblom]

This is a fantastic video. As a kid growing up reading about jet combat in books, the ATOLL was often mentioned, but never defined. At least in the reading I did. They always stuck out to me because they obviously were an important Warsaw Block armament and here I am still a fan of military aviation and at 38 years old I finally learned what the ATOLL actually was. This is awesome, an old dog can learn new "tricks".

[ferdyahern]

Great video as always, it's amazing to see where such complex things as missiles started off, surely you do a video on later missiles too!!

[miquelescribanoivars]

Remember to keep the jet steady while firing *at all* times

[sski]

Thank you for your straight to the point (as in on the subject at all times) informative commentary and outstanding pictorial accompaniment in your videos. Too many creators waste time with the YT self promotion, strain hearing with swelling music, and patience with ads for t-shirts and widgets. You don't and I get to learn because of it. Thank You, Sir!

[mattheide]

I think the Mig 21 is a beautiful aircraft. Just the way the lines flow and everything is swept back. Reminds me of Buck Rogers' ship and how hot the Cold War was. 😊

[bearshrimp]

I always look forward to your videos. The film, writing and your voice are, for me, the perfect combination. I am an American but I always like my documentaries narrated by a someone with a British or Australian accent. Keep up the great work !

[bobmartin]

10:36

This has totally got to be an intended pun... "lateral thinking" while talking about attitude control...

[jonathanhudak]

Loved this documentary on the Atoll! Very interesting and loved all the period photos and film footage that you put into all of your videos as well. You really do your homework and another reason to look forward to Fridays! 🙂

[ascot]

Whilst I agree the lineage of the Atoll owes less to the Sidewinder than popular references make out, the Soviets were actively working on the seeker design before the AIM-9 dropped in their laps. The seeker design of the Atoll owes much to a different missile that was still in (a somewhat troubled) design & test phase for the US Army at the time. That missile was the FIM-43 Redeye.