STINGER NOUN (WAR AND WEAPONRY)

The name (more fully Stinger missile) of a lightweight, shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missile developed in the US and incorporating an infrared homing device. Etymology: Presumably a figurative use of stinger in the sense 'something that stings or smarts'. History and Usage: The Stinger missile system was developed by General Dynamics and other contractors in the US in the second half of the seventies. Being light in weight and shoulder-launched, it proved an ideal form of anti-aircraft missile for guerrilla warfare. The use of Stingers by rebels against Soviet and Afghan government aircraft in Afghanistan brought them into the news in the second half of the eighties. The Pentagon told Congress Wednesday it intends to sell Saudi Arabia 400 ground-to-air Stinger missile systems along with 1,200 missiles. Christian Science Monitor 2 Mar. 1984, p. 2 The transfer of the Stingers to the counter-revolutionary bands, which use these missiles to down civilian aircraft, is simply immoral and totally unjustifiable. Mikhail Gorbachev Perestroika (English translation, 1987), p. 177