Difference between revisions of "Swingfire"

Latest revision as of 20:34, 2 July 2010

Swingfire was a British wire-guided anti-tank missile developed in the 1960s and produced from 1966 until 1993.^[1]

Development

Swingfire was developed by Fairey Engineering Ltd and the British Aircraft Corporation. It replaced the Vickers Vigilant missile in British service. It was a product of both its predecessor the Vigilant and the experimental Orange William missile.

The name comes from the ability of the missile to make a rapid turn of up to ninety degrees after firing to bring it onto the line of the sighting mechanism. This means that the launcher vehicle can be concealed and the operator, using a portable sight, placed at a distance in a more advantageous firing position.

Besides its use on the FV438 Swingfire and the Striker armoured vehicles, Swingfire was developed to be launched from other platforms:

• Beeswing - on a Land Rover
• Hawkswing - on a Lynx helicopter ^[1]
• Golfswing - on a small trolley or Argocat vehicle.

Combat history

Swingfire has seen combat use in the Gulf War ^[2] and the Iraq War.

Replacement in British Army

After a lengthy debate, the Swingfire was replaced with the Javelin in mid-2005 to meet new and changing situational requirements. The British Army invested heavily in the Javelin, and it is now the main heavy anti-tank missile system in use by the British Army.^[3][4]

Specification

• Diameter: 170 mm
• Wingspan: 0.39 m
• Length: 1.07 m
• Weight: 27 kg
• Warhead: 7 kg HEAT
• Range: 150 m to 4000 m
• Velocity: 185 m/s ^[1]
• Guidance: Wire-guided, originally MCLOS, later upgraded to SACLOS, in which form the system is known as SWIG (Swingfire With Improved Guidance).^[1]
• Steering: Thrust Vectored Control (TVC)
• Penetration: 800 mm RHA^[5]
• Unit cost: £7,500 ^[6]

Operators

Template:Externalimage

 Belgium

Belgian Army ^[1]

• FV102 Striker

23x15px Egypt

Egyptian Army ^[7]

• Swingfire missiles were also produced in Egypt under license by Arab-British Dynamics.^[8]

 Iraq

^[9]

Template:KEN

^[1]

23x15px Nigeria

Nigerian Army^[10]

23x15px Portugal

Portuguese Army

• Used on the Chaimite armoured fighting vehicle, now retired.

Template:QAT

^[1]

23x15px Saudi Arabia

^[1]

Template:SUD

SPAF ^[9][11]

 United Kingdom

British Army

• FV102 Striker - 5 in ready-to-fire bins.
• FV438 Swingfire - Two firing bins
• Ferret Mk 5 - Four firing bins.

Decommissioning problems

Swingfire inadvertently became the subject of questions in the Houses of Parliament in March 2002 when 20 warheads, removed for decommissioning, were washed into the Bristol Channel along with 8 anti-tank mines.^[12] The warheads, with a total explosive weight equivalent to 64.2 kg of TNT,^[13] were never located.^[14]

See also

• 12px Media related to Swingfire missiles at Wikimedia Commons
• CVR(T)

Notes and references

External links

• RAF Museum
• Global Defence
• Astronautix
• Skomer
• RAF Museum
• Live firing photo gallery, Strikers on German ranges, 1979

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8} Swingfire - Forecast International
2. ↑ Britain's Small Wars - Gulf Units
3. ↑ MOD press release
4. ↑ Javelin - Army Technology
5. ↑ Stephen Bull, Encyclopedia of military technology and innovation, 2004, Westport: Greenwood Press, p. 257. Other sources have noted the penetration as "up to 2ft thick" (~610-mm).
6. ↑ everything2.com
7. ↑ Global Security
8. ↑ ABD - Global Security
9. ↑ ^{9.0 9.1} NTI: Country Overviews: Egypt
10. ↑ http://www.armyrecognition.com/nigeria/nigeria_armee_nigeriane_forces_terrestres_equipements_vehicules_blindes_militaires_information_descr.html
11. ↑ Sudan, Civil War since 1955
12. ↑ Hansard
13. ↑ Hansard
14. ↑ MoD gives up on lost warheads