‘Mighty Mouse’ rockets were a terrifying opponent

Published 4:14 pm Tuesday, September 8, 2015

The Flying Heritage Collections’s UH-1B Huey gunship is equipped with a pair of seven-shot 2.75-inch rockets.

These “Mighty Mouse” FFARs (Folding Fin Aerial Rockets) were originally developed to take down Russian bombers. Affixed to an Air Force or Navy jet, a volley of these missiles could cover an area the size of a football field and one hit could take an enemy aerial attacker down.

Loaded into a “reloadable, reusable, repairable” XM158 launcher, the rockets were used to equip helicopters too. As one Huey pilot said, “We never planned to hit anything precisely with the 2.75s, but seeing them fired scared the heck out of everyone. After a rocket run, [the enemy] would stop shooting for two or three minutes.”