The greatest threat to aircraft and helicopters comes from IR missiles.

The greatest threat to aircraft and helicopters comes from IR missiles. As these are not normally associated with radar guidance, aircrew get no warning of the impending danger unless they are lucky enough to either see the weapon being launched or in flight. The proliferation of IR missiles is high, if we look only at shoulder launched 'Manpad' systems the most numerous is the SA-7 with many hundreds of thousands having been produced. The US Stinger has been sold in numbers approaching 50,000 while the French Mistraal numbers 12,000 to 18 different countries. The following examples give an indication as to the success of passively guided IR weapons:
During 1977 to 1985 905 of all loses were to IR guided weapons. 4.4% were to radar guided weapons.
During the Gulf War 78% of all loses were to IR weapons.
Over the last 20 years only 10% of aircraft have been shot down by radar guided weapons.