War and Military Atlas

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Python (missile)

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The Python is a family of short-range, infrared-homing air-to-air missiles built by the Israeli company Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. It descends from the Shafrir missile series, which entered development in 1959 and became operational in 1963, and was renamed Python for export starting with the Python-3 variant in 1978. Later versions add lock-on-after-launch capability, all-aspect attack, and speeds up to Mach 4, and the missile family is in service with more than fifteen countries.

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