sidewinders

Sidewinders commonly refers to two distinct things in the natural and military contexts. The sidewinder rattlesnake, Crotalus cerastes, is a venomous pit viper native to desert regions of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. It is named for its distinctive sidewinding locomotion, a gait that helps it move across loose, hot sand. Adults are stout with a pale to tan body marked by darker crossbands. The snake possesses heat-sensing pits between the eyes and nostrils to detect warm-blooded prey, and its venom is primarily hemotoxic, affecting blood and tissue. Its diet includes small mammals, lizards, and birds. Females give birth to live young.

The term also designates a family of air-to-air missiles, most notably the AIM-9 Sidewinder. This short-range, infrared-guided missile was developed by the United States and first entered service in the late 1950s. It uses a solid-fuel rocket motor and an infrared seeker to home in on heat sources such as aircraft engines. Over the decades, the Sidewinder has evolved through numerous variants (for example, AIM-9L/M and AIM-9X) and has been widely adopted by the U.S. and allied air forces. It remains in active service in upgraded forms and has had a significant impact on air combat tactics, contributing to decades of use in multiple conflicts and conflicts’ theaters.