The Redeye was withdrawn gradually between 1982 and 1995 as the Stinger was deployed, though it remained in service with various armed forces of the world until quite recently,[when?]

[5] When considering anti-aircraft weapons, they concluded that the M45 Quadmount mounting four M2 Browning machine guns would not be capable against future high-performance aircraft.

[6] At the 1950 Tripartite Conference in London, the US, UK and France agreed that the M2 would remain effective up until about 1960, but new weapons would be needed after that time.

[9] In production models, the motor would be modified to burn only briefly to propel it about 25 feet (8 m) at low speed before firing at full thrust.

This led to the Army's Redstone Arsenal receiving several unsolicited proposals for similar weapons from other companies:[11] The competing designs were based on various US air-to-air missiles, adapted for ground use and scaled-down to be operated by hand and launched from a disposable tube.

The lead that Convair had over these weapons was unapproachable, and their proposal was strongly supported by the Marines, who pressed the Army to begin development.

In May 1958 six unguided launches were conducted by US Marines at Twentynine Palms proving ground and Camp Pendleton, California, to assess human factors and ergonomics of the new weapon, as well as a trooper's capability to aim and launch a missile from the shoulder safely and accurately towards an imaginary target.

Deficiencies and shortcomings were experienced during the system development phase—mainly seeker inability to discriminate target against cloudy background or in a heavy clutter environment, coupled with absence of night operation capability and inability to engage head-on targets—which were never resolved (eventually leading to the Stinger development).

These included both guided (engaging target using techniques other than infrared homing) and unguided (directionally-controlled) missile systems.

The missiles were delivered in April 1966, and included a new gas-cooled infrared detector cell, a slightly redesigned launcher and an improved warhead.

Fifty Redeye systems were delivered to the mujahideen by the United States during the Soviet–Afghan War in 1984,[17] where they were used to shoot down aircraft including several Sukhoi Su-25 jets, as well as Mil Mi-24 and Mi-8 helicopters.

This happened first in Belgium in January 1974, causing a strengthening of security measures in the major West European and British airports.

Once the target is locked onto by the missile, a buzzer in the launcher hand grip begins vibrating, alerting the operator.

The operator then presses the trigger, which fires the initial booster stage and launches the missile out of the tube at a speed of around 80 feet per second (25 m/s).

[22] Several designs had no optical sighting device; the gunner was supposed to rely on the auditory alarm when the seeker acquired the target.

[22] Canards of the basic missile design were housed within the missile body during the entire flight, coming outside only to correct the course deviation of each roll cycle and folding back within a split second,[24][25] variable incidence (instead of fixed) canards were used to improve terminal guidance accuracy.

[26] The seeker also changed drastically, with multiple modifications made during the test phase,[27] the most important of which making it cooled, increasing its discrimination capability (though extending reaction time in order to adjust its subsystems to operating temperature,) and reducing the field of view to increase the missile's capability against single engine jets.

[31] All interim designs were dropped in favor of the one which was considered the best possible choice by the Army Missile Command, and mass-produced at the General Dynamics facilities within the Greater Los Angeles Area.