SS.11

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SS.11
SS.11 at the US Army Redstone testing ground
Type	MCLOS wire-guided anti-tank missile
Place of origin	France
Production history
Designer	Nord Aviation
Designed	1953
Produced	1956 - mid 1980s
Number built	180,000
Specifications
Weight	30 kg
Length	1190 mm
Diameter	165 mm

Effective range	500 m to 3,000 m
Warhead	Type 140AC anti-armour
Warhead weight	6.8 kg

Wingspan	500 mm
Speed	190 m/s
Guidance system	MCLOS

SS.11 is the designation of the Nord Aviation MCLOS wire-guided anti-tank missile. In American service the missile was designated the AGM-22. The missile entered service with the French army in 1956. Production of the missile ceased some time in the 1980s after 180,000 missiles had been produced.

1 Development
2 History
3 Description
4 Models
5 Operators
6 References

[edit] Development

Development of an improved version of the SS.10 (Nord-5203) began in 1953 as the Nord-5210. The missile was intended as a heavy version of the SS.10 for use from vehicles, ships and helicopters. The missile entered service with the French army under the designation SS.11.

The later B model of the missile replaces some of the original electronics with solid state components.

[edit] History

After the cancellation of the SSM-A-23 Dart in 1958 the United States began evaluating the SS.11, and accepted it into service in 1961 as the AGM-22A. The missile was deployed from UH-1B Huey helicopters using either the XM11 or M22 armament subsystems.

The missile was used in combat for the first time in 1966 during the Vietnam War. The missile was phased out by 1976, having been replaced by the BGM-71 TOW. The British Royal Air Force fired at least four of the missiles in the Falklands War against an Argentine battery of 105mm guns, during the Battle of Wireless Ridge, with little apparent success.^{[citation needed]}

Due to the manual nature of the guidance, performance of the missile was poor—requiring a highly trained operator—see MCLOS.

[edit] Description

A variety of warheads are available for the missile.

140AC hollow-charge - 600 mm versus RHA
140AP02 blast-fragmentation - 10 mm steel plate
140AP59 anti personnel
140CCN anti-shipping

On launch the rocket booster fired for 1.2 seconds, after which the sustainer engine fires for 20 seconds.

In flight the missile is steered by the vectoring of thrust from the engine. Since the missile spins in flight, a gyroscope is needed to determine the missiles relative orientation to the ground. This is very similar to the system used on AT-3 Sagger.