This is why pilots fear the Starstreak surface-to-air missile
Three is better than one, right? That's the basic idea missile developers had in mind when designing the Starstreak, a deadly man-portable air-defense system.
"Three darts give us the very high probability of at least one dart hitting the target and we would normally expect two darts to actually hit the target," said Hill Wilson, the weapon's technical director. "Three gives a very good punch."
Manufactured by Thales Air Defense in Belfast, United Kingdom, the Starstreak accelerates towards targets at speeds faster than Mach four, making it one of the fastest short-range surface-to-air missiles in the world. It was developed in the 1980s to replace existing shoulder-launched missiles and officially entered service in 1997. Troops can fire the round from various portable launcher systems including the THOR Multi-Mission System as demonstrated in the following video.
(Skip to 5:30 to watch the portion about the Starstreak missile.)
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