It's kind of embarrassing to admit, but when I was growing up, I had a small army of stuffed animals.
They had cute, fun names like Pound Puppies, Popples, My Favorite Monster, and, of course, Teddy Ruxpin.
Well, the children of Ukraine, if they ever get a reprieve from the ongoing war crime that is Russia's invasion, are going to grow up with an entirely different set of plushies.
Ones that look like this...
Yep. That's a plush toy replica of Raytheon's Stinger missile.
Stinger missiles can be fired from ground vehicles and helicopters, but their most lethal and versatile application is deployment through a man-portable air-defense system (MANPAD).
A shoulder-fired rocket launcher, in other words.
The Stinger first entered service in 1981 and is used by 30 countries, including the United States.
It first proved its effectiveness when the CIA gave Stingers to the Afghan resistance forces to use against Soviet helicopters. Now, we've deployed more than 2,000 to Ukraine to effectively the same end.
Stingers use an infrared camera to track the heat generated by a target's engine and establish an ultraviolet fingerprint to distinguish that target from other heat-emitting objects.
Once it's locked on, the image sensor tracks the target's flight path and the guidance system adjusts the missile's course accordingly. This allows it to lead the target.