: how does a air-air missile track an aircraft that is constantly changing it’s direction while also traveling supersonic?
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Simplest to explain is probably a heat-seeking missile.
On the nose of the missile is an infra-red camera that sees a hot object as a bright spot. When flying the missile guidance system has one simple rule: “Keep the bright spot in the center of the camera’s view”. If the bright spot is in the center, the missile is pointed straight at the target. If the bright spot is off to the left side of the image the missile needs to turn left to bring it back into the center of the image and be pointed back at the target.
The main trick for tracking aircraft is that the missile can turn **MUCH** faster than a plane that has a squishy meatbag in it.
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