BILL 2 Anti-tank guided weapon
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The BILL 2 Anti-Tank Guided Weapon is a man-portable or vehicle-mounted guided anti-tank missile using the overfly top attack method to attack the weaker parts of an armoured vehicle. The weapon is currently in service with the Swedish Army.
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[edit] System
[edit] Design
The BILL 2 was designed upon the original BILL 1 Anti-tank guided weapon that has been in the service of the Swedish Army since 1988. The BILL 2 is currently produced by Saab Bofors Dynamics, who are located in Karlskoga, Sweden. The BILL 2 comes with one 10.5kg missile, a launching tube, tripod with x7 magnification day sight, and one thermal imaging sight.
[edit] Operation
The BILL 2 uses OTA or Overfly Top Attack to attack its target. What this mean is that the missile flies on a standard horizontal trajectory, with the difference being that instead of directly hitting the target head on, it overflies it, detonating its warheads on top of an armored vehicle, where the armour is usually lighter. It also utilizes new guidance accuracy via the installed rate gyro, which monitors the tracking movement of the launcher. It is designed primarily to attack armoured or unarmoured vehicles, but can be used to attack helicopters or soft ground targets, such as light buildings.
The BILL 2 can be mounted onto a variety of vehicles and then fired remotely from inside the vehicle.
[edit] Firing Modes
The BILL 2 has four firing modes that the launcher's operator can select, before launching the missile.
- Basic - In this mode the missile will use both of its sensors to hit the armoured vehicle from the top.
- Non-Armored - In this mode the missile uses no sensors and flies on a LOS or line-of-sight, while using the impact fuse.
- Soft Target - In this mode the optical sensor is used, but the magnetic sensor is not. The missile then uses OTA to attack its target.
[edit] Missile
The BILL 2 Missile uses a SACLOS or semi-automatic command to line-of-sight guidance system, and is controlled via wire. The BILL 2 warhead has an optical and magnetic sensor. The optical sensor serves to find the target’s range, while the magnetic sensor detects metallic targets to determine the best point for the missile to detonate. The BILL 2 contains both a proximity fuse and an inertial impact fuse. The BILL 2 is armed with a double vertically striking shaped charge, which is a HE or high-explosive warhead. The front warhead destroys the reactive armour and leaves the rear warhead to penetrate the armour. The charges are shaped to direct all of the hot fragments to one point on the vehicle.
