Swingfire

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. Its design incorporated elements from 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 could 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:

• FV712, Mk 5 Ferret with 4 missiles in use with the British Army
• 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

Map with Swingfire operators in blue and former operators in red

External images

SWINGFIRE

STRIKER firing Swingfire

BEESWING firing Swingfire - missile making turn that gave it its name

GOLFSWING dismounted firing Swingfire

STRIKER crew with dismounted firing post in hiding

Swingfire cut-away illustration

Current operators

 Egypt

Egyptian Army ^[7]

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

 Iraq

^[9]

 Kenya

Kenyan Army^[1]

 Nigeria

Nigerian Army^[10]

 Qatar

^[1]

 Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabian Army^[1]

Ferret Mk 5 at The Tank Museum, Bovington

 Sudan

SPAF ^[9][11]

Former operators

 Belgium

Belgian Army ^[1]

• FV102 Striker

 Portugal

Portuguese Army

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

 United Kingdom

British Army

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

 Iran

Iranian Army^[12]

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.^[13] The warheads, with a total explosive weight equivalent to 64.2 kg of TNT,^[14] were never located.^[15]

See also

• CVR(T)

Notes and references

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Swingfire missiles.

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

Guided missiles of the United Kingdom Air-to-air ASRAAM Fireflash Firestreak Red Dean Red Top SRAAM/Taildog Skyflash Air-to-surface ALARM Brimstone Lightweight Multirole Missile Martel1 Sea Eagle Sea Skua Storm Shadow1 Sea Venom1 Surface-to-air Bloodhound Blowpipe CAMM Javelin Rapier Sea Cat Sea Dart Sea Slug Sea Viper Sea Wolf Starburst Starstreak Tigercat Thunderbird Surface-to-surface Swingfire Malkara2 UB.109T Vigilant Nuclear Blue Steel Blue Streak Blue Water Green Cheese 1 Anglo-French   2 Anglo-Australian