OVERVIEW: The R-60M (NATO reporting name: AA-8 "Aphid") is a short-range lightweight infrared homing air-to-air missile. It has a 3 kg HE warhead with an active laser proximity fuse.

DETAILS: Developed by Molniya Design Bureau, the R-60M (izdeliye 62) is a very small predecessor of the R-73 missile, with the same general appearance and less than half the weight. It has no gas control and a more limited off-bore sight angle, of +/- 20.
It has four rectangular fixed canards and four triangular moving control fins at the nose, with four long-chord clipped-tip delta-wings at the rear. The four fixed delta-wings have `Sidewinder' type rollerons at the trailing-edge for roll stabilisation.
Its 3 kg HE fragmentation warhead contains 1.6 kg of uranium.


Specifications:

Weight: 43 kg
Length: 2.09 m
Diameter: 0.12 m (missile)
Range:
-Max 3.89 nm (7.2 km)
-Min 0.1 nm (200 m)


NOTES: IOC 1982. Used by Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Cuba, Czech Republic,
Georgia, Germany, Hungary, India, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Montenegro, North Korea, Libya, Malaysia, Poland, Romania, Serbia and
Slovakia, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, Vietnam.

As of 2017, this missile remains in limited service on Russian Su-24, Su-25 and MiG-31 aircraft and with various export operators.

SOURCES: Jane's Air-Launched Weapons, Issue 27, 1997 ; Butowski, Piotr. Russia's Air-Launched Weapons: Russian-Made Aircraft Ordnance Today. Houston, Harpia Publishing, 2017. Page 43.