history

The AGM-45 Shrike is a American anti-radiation missile designed to home in on hostile anti-aircraft radar. The Shrike was developed by the Naval Weapons Center at China Lake in 1963 by mating a seeker head to the rocket body of an AIM-7 Sparrow. It was phased out by U.S. in 1992 and at an unknown time by the Israeli Air Force (the only other major user), and has been superseded by the AGM-88 HARM missile. The Israel Defense Forces developed a version of the Shrike that could be ground-launched and mounted it on an M4 Sherman chassis as the Kilshon (Hebrew for Trident).M-45 Shrike.
The Shrike was first employed during the Vietnam War by the Navy in 1965 using A-4 aircraft. The Air Force adopted the weapon the following year using F-105F and G Thunderchief Wild Weasel SEAD aircraft, and later the F-4 Phantom II in the same role. The range was nominally shorter than the SA-2 Guideline missiles that the system was used against, although it was a great improvement over the early method of attacking SAM sites with rockets and bombs from F-100F Super Sabres. A Shrike was typically lofted about 30 degrees above the horizon at a Fan Song radar some 15 miles (25 km) away for a flight time of 50 seconds.

in the box

Packed in Eduards usual blister pack, the resin parts are well protected in a plastic see through pack with a foam insert behind the parts to keep them snug and safe. A small fret of photo etch is also supplied for the exhaust ring. The instructions are folded and have the stencil decals inside the folded instruction sheet.sheet
The pack contains four missiles, with each missile compriseing of the main body with tail fins, and four mid body mounted wings as seprate parts. A photo etch exhaust ring brings the total parts for each missile to six.
The main missile bodys are cast in a light grey colour and have a casting block attached to the tail fin end. Careful use of a small razor saw or scalpel should remove the casting block with ease.
The main fins are cast in four sets of four, with the fin attachment point joined to the casting block. A scalpel should easily remove the fins.
Casting as ever from Eduard is top notch, with no imperfections in the resin.
Surface detail for the main missile bodies comprises of raised and recessed areas, and a nice touch is the rear mounting lugs which look pretty accurate.
The photo etch sheet has six exhaust rings attached to it, so two are spare to feed the carpet monster.

instructions, markings and decals

The instruction sheet folds out to a postcard size sheet with the part placement shown as one picture. The front of the sheet has the stencil decal marking guide. The main body colour is given with Aqueous and Mr Color piant numbers.
The small decal sheet has the stencils for each missile. The decals are well printed, in register and look to be quite legible.


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