Swingfire

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Swingfire
History

Type	Anti-tank
Nationality	UK
Era	Cold War
Launch platform	Vehicle, man-portable
Target	Vehicle
Builder
Date of design
Production period
Service duration
Operators	See text
Variants
Number built	46650 ^[1]
Specifications
Type
Diameter	0.17 m
Wing span	0.39m
Length	1.07 m
Weight	27 kg
Propulsion	Solid rocket motor
Steering	Thrust Vector Control
Guidance	Wire, MCLOS/SACLOS
Speed	185 m/s
Range	150 - 4000 m
Ceiling	n/a
Payload
Warhead	7 kg HEAT
Trigger	Impact

Swingfire is a wire-guided anti-tank missile.

1 Development
2 Combat history
3 Replacement in British Army
4 Specification
5 Operators
6 Trivia
7 See also
8 Notes
9 External links

[edit] 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 Striker armoured vehicle, 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.

[edit] Combat history

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

[edit] Replacement in British Army

A major review and procurement process was instituted in the late 1990s to update the British Army's entire anti-armour weapon systems; the candidates as the replacement for Swingfire included Hellfire, Starstreak and LOSAT. As of July 2005 it seems that no new long range anti-armour missile will be procured and the Swingfire role will be covered by further purchases of the much more advanced but shorter ranged Javelin.^[3]^[4]

[edit] Specification

Diameter: 0.17 m
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
Unit cost: £7,500 ^[5]

[edit] Operators

Belgium - Belgian Army ^[1]
- FV102 Striker

Egypt - Egyptian Army ^[6]
- Swingfire missiles were also produced in Egypt under license by Arab-British Dynamics.^[7]

Iraq ^[8]

Kenya ^[1]

Portugal - Portuguese Army
- Used on the Chaimite armoured fighting vehicle, now retired.

Qatar ^[1]

Saudi Arabia ^[1]

Sudan - SPAF ^[8]^[9]

United Kingdom - British Army
- FV102 Striker - 5 in ready-to-fire bins.
- FV438 Swingfire - Two firing bins
- Ferret Mk 5 - Four firing bins.

[edit] Trivia

Swingfire inadvertently became the subject of questions in the Houses of Parliament in March 2002 when 20 warheads, removed for decommisioning, were washed into the Bristol Channel along with 8 anti-tank mines.^[10] The warheads, with a total explosive weight equivalent to 64.2 kg of TNT,^[11] were never located.^[12]