This is the ultimate “selfie”: taken from the cockpit of an F-16 launching a Sidewinder missile.
Update: here’s the video of the flight during which the selfie was taken.
Self-portrait photographs (nowadays known as “selfies“) have always been a must among fighter jocks and you can find thousands taken by military pilots in the most unusal flight conditions.
However, selfies taken while launching missiles are much more rare just because firing activities involving the launch of an air-to-air missile don’t take place too often.
Kudos to the Royal Danish Air Force for taking this really cool image.
By the way, the pilot depicted in the image wears a JHMCS (Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System) a multi-role system that enhances pilot situational awareness and provides head-out control of aircraft targeting systems and sensors.
The helmet can be used in an air-to-air role, combined with the AIM-9X missile, as High-Off-BoreSight (HOBS) system, that enables pilots to cue onboard weapons against enemy aircraft merely by pointing their heads at the targets to guide the weapons.
In this case the missile launched by the Danish F-16 is an AIM-9L/M.
Image credit: RDAF
