R.530

The Matra R.530 was a French air-to-air missile of medium to short range, built to arm interceptor and fighter aircraft of the early jet missile era. It was offered with either an infrared seeker or a semi-active radar seeker, and the radar version relied on the launching aircraft to keep illuminating the target. It was the main missile armament of the Dassault Mirage III, which carried one on the centerline, and of the Mirage F1, which could carry up to three on wing hardpoints. French Navy F-8 Crusaders also carried two on the sides of the fuselage. Israel bought fifteen radar-guided rounds with launch pylons and called the weapon Yahalom, the Hebrew word for diamond. Its first kill came on 29 November 1966, when a Mirage III downed an Egyptian MiG-19. In the Six-Day War it proved unreliable, because the Cyrano radar struggled with ground clutter at low altitude where most fighting took place, and it scored no kills.