As one of the most successful infantry air defense weapons during the Cold War and even throughout the 20th century, the "Stinger" (FIM-92) portable air defense missile is on the way to retirement, and Raytheon's latest successful test-fired Next Generation Short-Range Interceptor (NGSRI) is regarded as its official successor. The Stinger was originally improved on the Red Eye missile and entered service with the US military in 1981. It was developed by General Dynamics and now produced by Raytheon/RTX. It is a portable air defense system that can be carried by an individual soldier and launched on the shoulder. It is used to deal with low-altitude fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters.
Compared with earlier similar weapons, a key improvement of the "Stinger" is that it can fire at oncoming targets instead of chasing targets flying from behind. This is due to its use of infrared and ultraviolet composite optical seekers, which can effectively lock on targets in complex backgrounds.
The "Stinger" was relatively simple to operate and quickly established a reputation as a reliable anti-aircraft weapon on the battlefield, and was even regarded as a key factor in "turning the tide of the battle" in many conflicts. During the 1982 Anglo-Africa Falkland Islands War, the Stingers "loaned" by the United States to the British Special Air Service (SAS) shot down an Argentine Air Force fighter jet while the soldiers almost read the instructions on the spot, demonstrating its strong combat power. During the Soviet-Afghan War in the 1980s, the CIA provided approximately 2,000 "Stingers" to Afghan mujahideen since 1986, which was generally considered to have broken the Soviet army's air superiority and forced Soviet helicopters to passively increase their flight altitude and change tactics. In recent years, thousands of Stingers have been transported to Ukraine for use against low-altitude threats such as Russian cruise missiles and helicopters.
Due to the importance of the "Stinger" on the battlefield, how to prevent such weapons from falling into the hands of hostile armed forces or terrorist organizations has always been a major security issue for the United States and NATO. After the Soviet troops withdrew from Afghanistan, the United States launched a large-scale buyback plan. At the same time, it also continued to crack down on attempts by Mexican drug cartels and other forces to illegally obtain "stingers." Despite this, "Stingers" still flow into many conflict areas around the world through the black market from time to time, triggering long-term concerns about the proliferation of portable anti-aircraft weapons. In popular culture, "Stingers" have also appeared frequently. For example, in the 1989 Bond movie "License to Kill", the villain made money by smuggling "Stingers". However, John Gardner, the author of the novel version of the film, "corrected" the plot and asked Bond to point out that the missiles in the film did not look like real "Stingers" in terms of appearance or hit performance, but more like being used by scammers as training rounds to pass them off as full ammunition.
Currently, due to the large number of "Stinger" aids to Ukraine, the U.S. military's inventory is obviously tight, and the difficulty in restoring full production in terms of supply chain and cost continues to rise, prompting the U.S. military to speed up the process of replacing "Stinger" with NGSRI. The more practical reason is that after 45 years of service, the Stinger has become outdated in today's rapidly changing battlefield environment. In an airspace filled with "loitering munitions", cruise missiles, and drones, its performance and upgrade space are increasingly difficult to meet the needs.
The NGSRI being developed by Raytheon is also a portable air defense missile, but it adopts an open architecture and modular design, which facilitates rapid hardware and software upgrades and is also suitable for automated and large-scale production. The new missile is designed to provide "all-area protection" and can be launched from the shoulder of an individual soldier or mounted on a vehicle or other platform. In terms of guidance technology, NGSRI has upgraded from the low-resolution "flower-shaped scanning" seeker of the "Stinger" to a high-resolution infrared imaging seeker, which is more conducive to locking low-infrared characteristics and small-sized targets, such as small UAVs.
In terms of key performance parameters such as range and speed, NGSRI has also been significantly improved. The new missile can reach a fastest speed of about Mach 2.5 and has a maximum range of about 8 kilometers (about 5 miles), which is significantly better than the Stinger's range of about 4.8 kilometers (3 miles). This is mainly due to the high-filling solid engine, which not only increases the speed, but also brings greater final kinetic energy. In terms of warhead and fuze configuration, NGSRI uses proximity and digital trigger fuzes to replace the Stinger's impact and delay fuze designs, so that even if the missile deviates slightly, it will have a chance to achieve a "near miss" as long as it is close to the target.
Raytheon said the latest round of company-funded tests took place on February 2, 2026, outside Tucson, Arizona. During the test, NGSRI demonstrated the ability to track UAV targets, verified the performance of key subsystems such as the engine and seeker, and also tested the "ergonomics" of the launch tube and operating interface to ensure that the entire system is still suitable for individual soldiers to carry and operate. Tom Laliberty, president of Raytheon's land and air defense systems division, said the company's investment in NGSRI reflects its close partnership with the U.S. Army and its commitment to providing advanced capabilities to the U.S. military, stressing that it will deliver a cost-effective and technologically leading new generation interceptor to the U.S. military through rapid testing and iteration.