Redeyes and Stingers
During the 1960s, the U.S. military introduced its first lightweight shoulder fired surface-to-air missile, the Redeye. The Redeye was a "fire-and-forget" weapon employing a passive infrared seeker (hence its name).
Because it was most effective when fired at the rear end of an aircraft (and because people in the military did not always understand how it was to be employed), the Redeye was sometimes called a "revenge" weapon. The fact that the Redeye was fired after the threat had already passed gave rise to the exclamation "Redeye!" when someone did or said something too late to be of any help.
The technologically advanced Stinger missile was inroduced to the U.S. military in the early 1980s. The Stinger's "all aspect" engagement capability was a major improvement over the Redeye. Although some Redeyes remain in Wotanberg's arsenal, the primary ant-aircraft missile is the improved Stinger, equipped with a reprogrammable microprocessor (RPM), which allows the Stinger to engage and destroy more sophisticated air threats.