Editing Surface-to-air missile (section)

===MANPADS===
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[[File:Starstreak.JPG|thumb|right|[[Starstreak missile|Starstreak]] laser-guided surface-to-air missile of the [[British Army]].]]

As aircraft moved ever lower, and missile performance continued to improve, eventually it became possible to build an effective man-portable anti-aircraft missile. Known as [[MANPADS]], the first example was a Royal Navy system known as the [[Holman Projector]], used as a last-ditch weapon on smaller ships. The Germans also produced a similar short-range weapon known as [[Fliegerfaust]], but it entered operation only on a very limited scale. The performance gap between this weapon and jet fighters of the post-war era was so great that such designs would not be effective.

By the 1960s, technology had closed this gap to a degree, leading to the introduction of the [[FIM-43 Redeye]], [[SA-7 Grail]] and [[Blowpipe (missile)|Blowpipe]]. Rapid improvement in the 1980s led to second generation designs, like the [[FIM-92 Stinger]], [[9K34 Strela-3]] (SA-14), [[9K38 Igla|Igla-1]] and [[Starstreak missile|Starstreak]], with dramatically improved performance. By the 1990s to the 2010s, the Chinese had developed designs drawing influence from these, notably the [[FN-6]] and the [[QW missile|QW series]].

Through the evolution of SAMs, improvements were also being made to [[anti-aircraft artillery]], but the missiles pushed them into ever shorter-range roles. By the 1980s, the only remaining widespread use was point-defense of airfields and ships, especially against [[cruise missile]]s. By the 1990s, even these roles were being encroached on by new MANPADS and similar short-range weapons, like the [[RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile]].
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