L 65M missile

The L 65M was a Granzerian Radar homing Air-to-Air missile that was developed in the mid 1960s for use on the Granzerian models of VeK-20s, the L65M was largely based off the Vazandian, the technical documents of which had been acquired by Granzerian espionage agencies some time in the early 1960s. Compared to the Sparrow, the L 65M featured a Granzerian developed radar homing device, as the specifications for the Vazandian radar was not available, the L 65M also had a longer fuselage and thinner body, resulting in slightly higher speed than the Sparrow at the cost of range (although later variants of the L 65M would meet or exceed the range of their Sparrow contemporaries).

Description
The original L 65M was essentially a combination of the lessons learned from the failed LÖR 58M project, with the knowledge gained from stolen Vazandian documents, the first model of the L 65M used a modified version of the radar found on the LÖR 58M. The original LÖR 58M had issues with both manoeuvrability and poor target tracking, the manoeuvrability issue was mostly rectified by the superior AIM-7 airframe, and some progress had been made to improve the target tracking of the L 65M, the radar still had issues following small targets such as fighter aircraft at long ranges.

In 1971, Vertega Aerospace reached out to the Vazandian government to assist in the further development of the L 65M. This project resulted in the L 65M2, which retrofitted the missile with a modified inverse monopulse seeker, increasing the effective range of the missile and greatly increasing its ability to track even small targets at long ranges.

Variants

 * L 65M1: Original 1965 model with a conic scan radar seeker.
 * L 65M2: Model released in 1973 which included an advanced inverse monopulse seeker, solving much of the missiles target tracking issues and also increasing maximum range the M2 also included Closed-loop hydraulics to better improve manoeuvrability. The M2 also included an upgraded rocket motor, boosting the speed of the missile.
 * L 65M3: The final variant of the L 65M which was used until the introduction of the FNHL-LR Striker with a further improved monopulse seeker and dual-stage rockets, giving the missile greater maximum range.
 * L1 SLR: A ground based version using L 65M3 missiles, the SLR was introduced in the mid 1980s to replace the aging missiles in the medium range air defence role.