FFAR Mighty Mouse

Description

The FFAR Mighty Mouse rocket (scale is approximate)

The FFAR Mighty Mouse or Mk 4 Folding-Fin Aerial Rocket is a 2.75 inches (70 mm) diameter unguided rocket utilised by military aircraft. This rocket was primarily developed for interceptor aircraft which would utilise them for shooting down enemy bombers which proved difficult to shoot down with guns and cannons at the speeds at which they were travelling. While initially developed for air-to-air combat, the FFAR was found to be very effective when utilised in air-to-surface operations.

Unlike traditional missiles with fixed fins, the FFAR's fins were in a folded position when loaded in a launch tube. Upon the missile being launched and departed the launch tube, the folding fins would flip out into place to help stabilise the spin-rate of the rocket. While a single rocket could by itself bring down a bomber, due to it being unguided, accuracy was not on the side of the attacking pilot. To compensate for the inaccuracy of the rockets, they were usually launched in volleys to increase chances of hitting the target.

By the late 1950s, rockets had largely been removed from air-to-air service and were being fitted to helicopters for an air-to-ground role. For helicopters, a volley of rockets was found to be just as effective as a cannon, however, the rockets were lighter and did not cause recoil that the cannons produced.

The FFAR was given the nickname "Mighty Mouse" after the famous cartoon character of the time which featured a mouse with superpowers and the ability to fly and was known to sing a famous line "Here I come to save the day!" when he flew into action.

General info

A side view of a UH-1B with a side mounted FFAR Mighty Mouse rocket launcher.

Rocket characteristics
Mass	8 kg
Maximum speed	701 m/s
Explosive mass	1.17 kg TNTeq
Warhead type	HEAT

Effective damage

The FFAR Mighty Mouse is a straight forward unguided high-explosive rocket which can be configured for either a contact fuse, timed fuse or an automatic detonation fuse once the rocket propellent has run out. If the rocket explodes within close proximity of a target aircraft or vehicle, it will still cause splash damage and still potentially disable or destroy the target.

Comparison with analogues

Give a comparative description of rockets that have firepower equal to this weapon.

Usage in battles

Due to the size and inaccurate nature of the FFAR Mighty Mouse, this rocket is best used against slower moving targets like bombers, hovering helicopters, aircraft parked on a runway and other lightly armoured targets. When attacking bombers, it may be necessary to fire off the entire volley of rockets in one shot to increase the chance of hitting the target. For aircraft parked on the runway, helicopters or other lightly armoured targets it may only be necessary to fire off several rockets to ensure a hit, but not the entire volley. Several rocket attacks may be required due to the inaccurate nature of these rockets.

Pros and cons

The FFAR Mighty Mouse was nicknamed after the fictional cartoon character Mighty Mouse.

Pros:

• Enough explosive value to take out a bomber
• Lightweight

Cons:

• Extremely inaccurate, requires many to increase chances of hitting a target

History

Examine the history of the creation and combat usage of the weapon in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the weapon and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Weapon-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref></ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <references />.

Media

Images

• 

Videos

Mk 4 Mighty Mouse Folding-Fin Aerial Rocket (FFAR) - jaglavaksoldier

See also

Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:

• reference to the article about the variant of the weapon;
• references to approximate analogues by other nations and research trees.

External links

• [Bullet Picker] TM9-1950 - Rockets, Department of the US Army, 1958, p. 74

Rockets
USA
70 mm	FFAR Mighty Mouse · Hydra-70 M247
110 mm	M8
127 mm	HVAR · Zuni Mk32 Mod 0 ATAP
298 mm	Tiny Tim
408 mm	Yasser
Germany
55 mm	R4M
73 mm	RZ.65
88 mm	Pb2
150 mm	Wgr.41 Spr
210 mm	Wfr.Gr.21
USSR
55 mm	S-5K · S-5KP · S-5M
80 mm	S-8KO · S-8M
82 mm	M-8 · ROS-82 · RBS-82
122 mm	S-13OF
127 mm	S-3K
132 mm	M13 · M-13UK · ROFS-132 · ROS-132 · RBS-132
212 mm	S-1of · S-21
240 mm	S-24 · S-24B
300 mm	M-31
420 mm	S-25O · S-25OF · S-25OFM
425 mm	TT-250
Britain
51 mm	RP
70 mm	CRV7 M247
80 mm	Type R80 SURA T-80-P 3 · Type R80 SURA T-80-US 3
87 mm	AP Mk I · AP Mk II
152 mm	RP-3
183 mm	Triplex R.P.
292 mm	Uncle Tom · Red Angel
Japan
100 mm	Type 5 No.1 Mod.9
120 mm	Type 3 No.1 Mod.28 Mk.1
130 mm	Type 75
210 mm	Type 3 No.6 Mod.27 Mk.1 · Type 5 No.6 Mod.9
China
55 mm	Type 57-1
70 mm	FS70
90 mm	Type 90-1
130 mm	Type 130-2
Italy
50 mm	ARF/8M3(AP-AT)
70 mm	Skyfire-70 AC/AP
France
68 mm	SNEB type 23 · TDA
70 mm	FZ49
100 mm	TBA ECC · TBA Multi-Dart 100 AB
120 mm	T10 140 · T10 151
Sweden
75 mm	srak m/55 Frida · srak m/57B
81 mm	Oerlikon Typ 3Z 8Dla
135 mm	m/56D · psrak m/70
145 mm	psrak m/49B · Psrak m/49/56
150 mm	srak m/51
180 mm	hprak m/49
Israel
80 mm	Flz.-Rakete Oerlikon
127 mm	AR