Infra-red

Summary
Infrared weapons are air-to-air exclusive guided missiles that work by locking onto the exhaust vents of enemy aeros, and are a subset of fire-and-forget weapons. Infrared weapons can only lock onto weapons from behind, which is reflected in the description of both the Diamondback and the Cobra, the only current Infrared weapons in-game.

Characteristics
Infrared weapons are the cheapest air-to-air exclusive weapons, but are limited by several factors. Firstly, Infrared missiles can only lock onto from behind an enemy aero or the backside of CARRIER engines, requiring a pilot to actually maneuver in such a way that their aero ends up behind a target. This is also true of Vet and Ace enemies (particularly SCHWALBEs), which will not fire their Infrareds in a head on pass. However, Infrared weapons make up for this by having particularly high speed and high turning power, and are incredibly punchy (A single Diamondback deals 60 damage and will two-shot some aeros), making them highly preferable as pursuit or dogfight weapons. They also have high lock-on cones; combined with their high speed and turning ability this essentially results in guaranteed kills towards anything within firing range.

Usage
Infrared weapons are great dedicated air-to-air weapons for any aeros (such as Bombers and Fighters) with a low avionics capacity, due to their low cost. As they are not suited for head-on shots, but have high accuracy and ridiculous performance, Infrareds favor high piloting skill and short-range dogfighting. Expect to be trapped in turning fights often if looking for an opportunity to gain a kill, or taking extra time to flip around and get behind a target.