[Suhiir]

Don't expect Stingers to have much effect on enemy aircraft.
Due to the way the game works unless you actually shoot them down before they make their attack run just damageing them has basically no effect. And it's rare that a stinger actually shoots down an aircraft.

Against helos they're somewhat more effective, in that if a helo is damaged it will usually exit the map the following turn.

In short, unless you're playing a game with unlimited ammo MANPADS are effectively useless for air defense. If you're playing unlimited ammo then yes, damaged aircraft won't return for a second (or more) bombing run later in the game.

Now if you have 10, 15, 20 MANPADS as some of the computer generated Soviet forces do this of course changes the whole equation - with enough missiles they work just fine !